Devastating Cuts to Early Learning if Congress Doesn't Act

This blog post was written by Julia Warth, a graduate of the University of Washington-College of Education and the 2013 Citizen?s Report Card Project Manager for the League of Education Voters.

Yesterday, Congress came back into session to tackle the national debt. We?ve been here before. Congress tried, and failed, to come up with a solution to the federal deficit before the election break. And this time, if Congress can?t come to an agreement by the end of the year, there will be across the board cuts to all federal programs. This means that programs critical to our most vulnerable populations in Washington State will be cut?programs like Head Start.

Head Start makes an enormous difference in the lives of thousands of students in Washington State at-risk of starting school unprepared and falling behind. For example, in the Island/Skagit Head Start program, a quarter of students were at the expected developmental level in math and barely half were at the expected level in literacy at the beginning of the school year in 2011. By the spring, three-quarters of the students were at the expected level in math and 95% in literacy.[1]? These are huge gains that set students on the path to real educational success.

But if there are across the board cuts to the federal program budgets, 1,400 kids will be cut from Head Start in Washington State. That?s 1,400 kids that will start school under-prepared and 1,400 families that will struggle to help their kids succeed. These are families like that of a LEV organizer, whose daughter needed special education services and qualified for Head Start. After one and half years in Head Start, she started kindergarten without needing any sort of special education services and ready to succeed in school. Without Head Start, her family would not have been able to provide her with the preschool education she needed to be successful in school.

In addition to the benefits of Head Start programs for children and their families, high-quality preschool programs actually deliver benefits and cost-savings to society over the lifetime of a student. Children who participate in early learning and preschool programs are less likely to need special education services or repeat grades, which means cost-savings for schools and taxpayers. They are more likely to have higher incomes and are less likely to commit crimes later in life, which means higher tax revenues and lower criminal costs. These benefits can result in returns of up to $16 on every dollar invested in high-quality preschool programs.

Head Start and early learning programs are one of the smartest investments the government can make in our children?s and our country?s future. Contact your US Representative and Senators today by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Tell them that across the board cuts will hurt our littlest learners, their families, and their communities.

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Source: http://www.educationvoters.org/2012/11/14/devastating-cuts-to-early-learning-if-congress-doesnt-act/

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