A federal watchdog is warning that there may be lead in the drinking water in federally funded child care centers that serve low-income children across the country. It’s the latest evidence that Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services should be exploring ways to improve the safety and value of the federal Head Start program to give disadvantaged kids a better chance to succeed.
The program costs $10 billion annually and serves nearly 1 million children and their parents.
In September, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report examining the safety of the drinking water at federally-funded child care facilities. The auditors surveyed 762 Head Start centers and found that “an estimated 43% of Head Start centers had not tested their drinking water for lead in late 2018 or 2019, and 31% did not know whether they had tested, according to GAO’s nationwide survey.”
Among the 26% of Head Start centers that had tested in the past year, 10% reported finding the presence of lead in the drinking water. Based on this rate, it’s reasonable to assume that at least 50 of the 762 Head Start centers probably have lead in their water but haven't tested for it.
That’s a serious problem for all children at risk. According to GAO, “Young children are particularly at risk of experiencing the adverse effects of lead exposure from a variety of sources, including drinking water.”
The latest in a series of alarming reports about Head Start safety and mismanagement
The new report is just the latest in a series of federal oversight reports that found problems involving fraud or safety in the Head Start program. In 2019, GAO attempted to enroll fictitious, ineligible children in 15 Head Start centers, and found that five centers either doctored or ignored disqualifying information to allow the imaginary children to fraudulently enroll.
Jonathan Butcher and Jude Schwalbach reviewed the research in a February 2020 report for the Heritage Foundation. "Reports of child abuse and fiscal fraud demonstrate that many Head Start centers have systemic administrative failings and do not follow basic steps to protect children," they wrote.
These aren't new problems. In 2005, House Republicans, led by then Education and Workforce Committee chair John Boehner, issued an oversight report documenting widespread fraud and mismanagement in the program.
Head Start provides poor value for parents and children served
Beyond these problems of fraud, mismanagement and safety, the Head Start program provides poor value for children and parents.
For starters, the Head Start program does not provide lasting academic benefits for children enrolled. A long-anticipated, Congressionally-mandated evaluation found no lasting academic benefits from attending Head Start. (The HHS Department resisted releasing the final results and only relented after facing pressure from several senators, including my former boss, Tom Coburn, former U.S. Representative and senator from Oklahoma. The department finally released the report on the Friday before Christmas.)
Beyond the discouraging academic effects, Head Start offers parents poor values as a source of child care compared to state programs and private providers. That’s because Head Start only requires that providers offer 448 hours of care per year.
I summarized this argument in a recent article for The Dispatch:
"The federal government's largest preschool program offers a poor deal for parents. The United States spends $9 billion annually on Head Start, or more than $10,000 per student enrolled. But Head Start centers are required to provide only 448 hours of care per year, less than half of the 1,000 hours that most public schools are open. Past evaluations have found that Head Start doesn't provide lasting educational benefits for participating kids.
Giving parents control of their child's share of Head Start funding to arrange for private child care could dramatically increase the number of hours of care provided and improve the program's educational value. For example, in 37 states, the per-child cost of the Head Start program is more than the average cost of full-time child care for a 4-year-old. Increasing the hours of child care provided would allow working parents to boost annual earnings by 20% or more."
Consider, for example, how Florida's voluntary pre-K scholarship program compares with Head Start. Florida offers a voluntary preschool voucher worth approximately $2,200 per child. To collect vouchers and enroll children, Florida preschool providers must offer 540 hours of service annually. In comparison, Florida's per-child Head Start spending is $8,900 (or four times greater), even though Head Start providers may offer 92 hours less care per year.
Parents and children deserve better preschool options than Head Start
Reforming the Head Start program to create better options for parents and children is long overdue. Congress hasn’t reauthorized Head Start since 2007.
It shouldn’t require reports of lead in the drinking water to spur congressional action to reform Head Start. But the latest alarming warnings about the federal government’s oldest preschool program should be a wake-up call. It’s time for Congress to take a new, close look at the Head Start program and provide parents and children with better options.
Education goals: The head of the Senate’s K-12 appropriations subcommittee wants to raise teacher pay by changing the state's teacher bonus plan, cut standardized testing and keep offering longer school days to the state's lowest-performing schools. State Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, outlined his 2017 legislative session goals during the subcommittee's first meeting. Politico Florida. News Service of Florida. WOFL.
Budget problems: Voters just approved a sales tax increase that will provide the Palm Beach County School District $1.4 billion over the next 10 years. But school officials say it isn't enough to offset cuts in funding from the state, and they expect to have to cut budgets for at least the next three years. Sun-Sentinel.
Pot dispensaries: Florida legislators should protect children by adopting laws that ban medical marijuana dispensaries within 2,500 feet of schools, forbid any products that look like candy, and ban the products on school property without supervision, members of the Miami-Dade County School Board say. Miami Herald.
Superintendent favorite: Diane Kornegay emerges as the consensus favorite to become the next Lake County school superintendent. Kornegay, who is deputy superintendent at the Clay County School District, is the only one of the six finalists who will be interviewed further Monday and Tuesday. If she's hired by the school board, Kornegay will succeed the retiring Susan Moxley. Orlando Sentinel. Daily Commercial. (more…)
Daily recess: Elementary school students in the Orange County School District will be given 20 minutes of recess daily. The school board approved the measure, although it also allows teachers some discretion in how recess is scheduled. Orlando Sentinel.
Early education: Most of Florida's children eligible for the Head Start program aren't enrolled because there isn't enough money to add classrooms, according to a study by the National Institute for Early Education Research. Fixing the problem would cost about $20 billion a year. Orlando Sentinel. Washington Post. The 74.
District rankings: The St. Johns County School District is named tops in the state in an annual survey by Niche.com. The Seminole County School District is second, Okaloosa third, Sarasota fourth and Brevard fifth. Ratings are based on data from the U.S. Department of Education, including test scores, college readiness, graduation rates, SAT/ACT scores and teacher quality. WPLG.
Failing schools: New Miami-Dade County School Board member Steve Gallon is proposing the district focus on improving schools that have received grades of D or F from the state. Florida Bulldog.
SpringBoard survives: The Hillsborough County School District will keep using English and math textbooks from SpringBoard. Teachers and students have complained about effectiveness of the materials, which the district buys from the College Board. Replacing the textbooks would have cost almost $12 million, a price the financially strapped district was unwilling to incur. Tampa Bay Times. (more…)
STEM. Students in Orlando's Pine Hills neighborhood experiment with growing bioluminescent mushrooms. Orlando Sentinel. These 20 public elementary schools excel in science instruction for disadvantaged students. Bridge to Tomorrow. Students at a Lakeland Christian school learn about robotics during a summer workshop. Lakeland Ledger.
Budgets. Miami-Dade school officials plan to lower the property tax rate slightly. Miami Herald. Local districts await state information on property tax revenues for schools. Tallahassee Democrat.
Private schools. A Bradenton Montessori school plans to expand into a new location. Bradenton Herald.
Charter schools. Palm Beach's new superintendent plans a forum for charter school parents. Sun-Sentinel.
Digital learning. Florida schools seem likely to to receive state digital classrooms funding despite uncertainty caused by a line-item veto. Tampa Bay Times. A parent writes an open letter to Palm Beach's superintendent on digital learning. Context Florida.
International Baccalaureate. A St. Petersburg student gets rare perfect scores on her college-credit exams. Tampa Bay Times. (more…)
Testing. The Florida Senate approves a testing and accountability overhaul. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. Scripps/Tribune. The state of the state's testing regime draws some choice words from lawmakers. Miami Herald. The testing bill would also allow districts to move up school start dates. Orlando Sentinel.
Charter schools. A provision aimed at luring out-of-state operators is stripped from Senate charters and choice legislation. Miami Herald. Hillsborough holds an orientation for charter school operators. Gradebook. A district probe of an Escambia charter school is more complex than mere grade tampering. Pensacola News-Journal.
Uniforms. Do they help student outcomes? PoltiFact.
Early learning. Duval's Head Start program makes improvements. Florida Times-Union.
Teacher pay. A new Polk teacher contract awaits ratification. Lakeland Ledger.
Security. North Florida school administrators oppose arming school employees. Panama City News Herald.
Charter schools. The charter schools in Pinellas expect to add 1,400 students this fall, for a total of nearly 6,500. Gradebook. A new charter school in Naples is offering a summer camp to boost literacy skills for ELL students entering kindergarten. Fort Myers News Press. The struggling Tiger Academy charter school in Jacksonville shows big improvement in its third grade FCAT results. Florida Times Union.
Private schools. Q&A with the new head of Tampa's Carrollwood Day School. Tampa Tribune.
Teacher transfers. Alexander Russo takes a look at a recent study examining involuntary transfers in Miami-Dade.
School spending. Pasco anticipates $1 billion in capital expenses through 2025 and $711 million from all funding sources. Gradebook. Pasco considers shifting some school start times to save money on bus routes. Tampa Bay Times.
Superintendents. The Tampa Bay Times profiles new Hernando Superintendent Lori Romano.
Porn. Pasco deputies arrest a 15-year-old high school student for possession of child pornography after school officials find a photo on her iPhone of two teens having sex. Tampa Tribune, Tampa Bay Times.
Head Start. The feds uphold the suspension of the Jacksonville Urban League as a program provider, citing health and safety issues. Florida Times Union.
I am more politically incorrect than your average guy, so when I heard President Obama call for universal pre-K for 4-year olds in the State of the Union, I cringed. With all the raucous enthusiasm ringing around this issue since the speech, adapting Warren Buffet’s investment approach to public policy might be wise: when everyone is bold, it’s time to be cautious.
In 2006, when I was with California Parents for Educational Choice, we were part of a coalition of organizations that defeated Rob Reiner’s ballot initiative to bring universal pre-K to the state. It was introduced to widespread public approval, but by Election Day garnered only 39 percent of the vote. The electorate came to understand three major elements they did not like:
* Expanding pre-K to everyone, including middle class and upper income families, is hugely expensive and precious little, if any evidence, supports much educational value added for the middle class and wealthy.
* The initiative vastly expanded the existing public school monopoly, which hardly has a resounding record of educational success, especially with poor and minority students. It also mandated collective bargaining, swelling the ranks and economic power of the California Teachers Association, an organization that systematically stands in the way of innovation and reform.
* The academic outcomes were questionable. A Reason Foundation analysis found from 1965 to 2005, 4-year old participation in preschool programs had grown nationwide from 16 percent to 66 percent, but we had virtually no evidence of increased student learning on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) by fourth grade. Oklahoma, with a universal program since 1998, finished dead last on the 2005 NAEP, actually losing four points.
But that was close to seven years ago and admittedly, I haven’t followed the pre-K issue regularly. So I spent the last few days reviewing some studies and data. The key word in the Obama proposal is quality.
We likely can justify a highly targeted effort on kids in failed families or families that simply have no resources - financial, social, emotional, or cultural - to allow their children to mature and develop normally. But when Obama declares, “We know this works,” he overstates and simplifies our experience. (more…)
