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.

As usual, school choice is high on the education agenda as the Florida Legislature convenes its 60-day legislative session.

This is not an exhaustive list of all the school choice-related bills that have been filed. But it's a rundown of measures that could make an impact before lawmakers adjourn in March. They're the ones we'll be watching closely.

Hope Scholarships. HB 1/SB 1172 would create a new school choice program for violence victims.

Home education. HB 731/SB 732 would limit the requirements school districts can place on homeschoolers. And they would increase homeschoolers' access to dual enrollment and career education courses.

Reading scholarships. SB 1820 would create mini-education savings accounts. Parents whose children struggled on the third-grade reading assessment could use the accounts to pay for books, tutoring, summer programs or after-school instruction.

Mastery-based learning. SB 968/HB 1035 would expand a personalized learning pilot program statewide. They would give public schools a chance to allow students to advance based on their mastery of a subject, rather than the amount of time they spend in class.  (more…)

Talk about irony.

The head of the Florida teachers union – which is suing to kill the nation’s largest private school choice program – said this week that one of Florida’s biggest educational voucher programs led to improvements in student learning, and strongly suggested the program be given more state money.

Florida Education Association President Joanne McCall was referring to the state’s Voluntary PreKindergarten (VPK) program. It’s a government-funded voucher. It cost the state nearly $400 million last year alone. And it allowed 125,000 students to attend private institutions, including 27,000 at faith-based providers.

McCall’s voucher support came via this Context Florida op-ed, which slammed a Florida Chamber of Commerce report praising the state’s education reforms, particularly in terms of regulatory accountability. She shrugged them off and pointed instead to two union-backed policies: shrinking class sizes and VPK.

“Both have accomplished more to improve student learning than most of the policies advocated in the Chamber report,” McCall wrote. And about VPK in particular, she added, the chamber ignores the fact that “Florida’s prekindergarten per-student funding is among the lowest in the nation, leading not surprisingly to pre-K programs that are inferior to those in most states.” (more…)

One state enrolls 80 percent of its four-year-olds in publicly supported preschool programs, while spending less than $2,300 per student on average. Another spends more than $4,000 per student, but only serves 30 percent of its prekindergarten-aged children.

Which state has made a greater commitment to early learning?

The first would be Florida, where a nearly $400 million Voluntary Prekindergarten program is one of the most widely used forms of school choice, and serves a larger proportion of four-year-olds than its counterparts in any other state but Vermont.

The second is an imaginary state representing the national average in 2014, according to the annual State of Preschool report released earlier this month by the National Institute for Early Education Research.

The scope of Florida's investment in preschool, mandated by a state constitutional amendment passed in 2002, would exceed the national average since it serves a larger proportion of youngsters. That point isn't exactly emphasized in the report's accompanying press release lamenting the level of funding in early learning programs, though it does note a funding increase approved last year is "encouraging."

The VPK program funds scholarships, which help parents send their children to preschools of their choice. The vast majority of providers are private early learning centers.

The scholarships are considerably less than per-student funding for K-12 schools, or for other private scholarship programs. While the state mandates fewer hours of instruction for pre-k than it does in elementary schools, some advocates say increased funding could encourage more schools to participate, or to improve their existing programs. (more…)