BUSH PLAN COULD DISMANTLE HEAD START GIVING STATES AUTHORITY OVER PROGRAM WOULD LIKELY GUT IT.

Byline: Al Sheahen Local View

HEAD Start is in danger.

Of all the welfare programs in the United States, Head Start is perhaps the most successful and least controversial.

The program has been supported by every president since it started. But President Bush, in his fiscal year 2004 budget, has proposed radical changes.

Head Start is a program for low-income families with preschool-age children. For 38 years, this federal program has provided educational, social and health interventions to children to help them succeed in school and in life.

The investment has paid dividends for us all. Each year, Head Start serves close to 1 million children and their families.

Children in Head Start learn fundamental skills. They are fed. They get medical care. They get mental health care. Their parents learn about nutrition and child development.

Head Start graduates are less likely to need special-education services, to be held back a grade, or to get in trouble with the law. They are more likely to go on to college and professional careers than children from low-income families who do not attend Head Start.

The need still exists. Families eligible for 90 percent of Head Start slots must have incomes under the federal poverty level. That's $11,940 for a family of two, $15,200 for a family of three, $18,100 for a family of four. Government figures show 32 million Americans - 12 million children and 20 million adults - live below those levels. One child in six in America lives in poverty, compared to 38 in Sweden.

But the Bush administration is proposing to dismantle Head Start:

--Responsibility would be shifted from the federal government to states through block grants.

--States would develop 50 separate plans for Head Start.

--Oversight would switch from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Education.

--Requirements for trained teachers would be scrapped.

--The mission to ensure parents are fully involved in helping their children prepare for school would be done away with.

``This is a radical experiment to dismantle Head Start,'' said Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund.

The purpose of the Bush proposal is to emphasize reading, but in doing so, there's a risk of losing the program's comprehensive services. Childhood-development experts are almost unanimous in the view that Head Start should not be a literacy program. It should be what it is - a comprehensive preschool program that delivers academic content, improves social skills and promotes emotional development. Shifting focus to literacy is likely to subvert the broader mission that has proved so effective.

This proposal to put the $6.5 billion annual program into the hands of money-strapped state governments that are running multibillion-dollar deficits spells disaster. California has a $32 billion deficit.

``If states are allowed to grab the money, they may use it somewhere else,'' Sen. Christopher Dodd said.

Head Start has been proved to save about $4 for every $1 invested in it.

``Fight Crime, Invest in Kids'' is a national organization of sheriffs that strongly supports Head Start.

Research shows how critical the first four years of life are in shaping intellectual and emotional development. The Family and Child Experience Survey concluded that Head Start children enter kindergarten ``ready to learn.''

``Head Start works. It has a proven record,'' Sen. Edward Kennedy said. ``Abandoning it to the 50 winds of this country is a major step back for our children.''

Head Start's greatest flaw is it only reaches 60 percent of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds. The program turns away 97 percent of toddlers and 2-year- olds eligible for Early Head Start.

A Republican-backed bill - HR 2210 - is now moving through Congress. Families across the country are writing letters to their senators and representatives to oppose Bush's proposal, and to urge Congress to increase funding by $1 billion for fiscal year 2004.

``I believe the proposed changes would weaken, not strengthen, Head Start,'' California Sen. Barbara Boxer said.

If it's not broken, don't fix it.