President Obama Announces New Improvements for Head Start Program

President Obama has been an advocate for improving the quality of education that children in the USA receive for years, and now, he has taken another step in this direction. On Tuesday, he announced some changes that are going to be made to the Head Start program. This program allows children from low-income families to attend preschool.
“This is the first time in history that Head Start programs will truly be held accountable for performance,” Obama said during a speech.
It is somewhat strange that Head Start has not been held accountable to the same standards as other education programs, such as No Child Left Behind and other reform efforts. Under the current rules, preschools can continue to receive funding from Head Start even if they are not revising and improving their programs.
However, this is all going to change. In the near future, these programs that want to receive Head Start funding will be regularly evaluated on a thorough basis and the programs that do not meet standards will be forced to compete with other preschools in their area for the funding that they would lose.
This makeover for the Head Start program is part of Obama’s “We Can’t Wait” agenda for education and Obama’s reelection campaign. The new agenda was announced two weeks ago. Another part of the agenda is to modify the No Child Left Behind provisions that are enforced in some states. Obama plans to make these improvements, even if he does not have Congress’s support.
“There’s no substitute for Congress doing its job,” Obama said about Congress’ failed attempt of fixing problems with the Child Left Behind policy. “We want ot work with Congress but we’re not going to wait.”
So now Obama is taking issues into his own hands and getting things started. There have been many studies done recently that show that a high-quality early education can make a huge difference in a child’s longterm academic careers. Hopefully, with these new standards that will hold Head Start accountable, the future generations of American students will have a better head start in their academic careers.
Via Salon.com
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