Bush administration works to stifle Head Start supporters
There’s an interesting conflict underway between the Bush administration and thousands of teachers and parents who work with Head Start centers across the country. I’m a little surprised it’s not getting more attention; in fact, I hadn’t heard much of anything about it until getting a heads up from Carpetbagger regular Maverick late last week. (Thanks, Mav)
Head Start, for those of you unfamiliar with the program, is one of the sterling achievements of President Johnson’s Great Society legislation of the 1960s. Head Start currently helps almost 1 million children, nearly all of whom come from low-income families, before entering kindergarten. The program’s focus is on preschool education, but it also emphasizes medical care, nutrition, parental counseling, and social interaction among the children.
For decades, Head Start has been held out as a model for effective government programs and it’s almost always received bi-partisan support. (It is worth mentioning that Vice President Dick Cheney, while serving in Congress in 1986, was one of only a handful of members to oppose federal funding for Head Start centers. But I digress…)
In any event, the Bush administration has proposed a dramatic change to Head Start funding. Instead of funding centers through the Department of Health & Human Services, as is the case now, Bush wants to direct the money to states in the form of block grants. The reason that worries supporters of the program is that block grants would allow Head Start money to enter cash-strapped states’ general fund. With states facing their most dire fiscal conditions since WWII, and governors cutting budgets across the board on everything from education to hospitals, many assume Head Start facilities would inevitably face the budget knife.
Edward Zigler, a professor who helped create Head Start 38 years ago, called the administration’s plan “ill conceived and unjustified.”
Ironically, that’s not the controversy. The problem is the Bush administration wants to make sure that the parents and teachers who love Head Start don’t contact Congress about their concerns.
No, really, I’m serious. There are nearly 700,000 Americans who are either Head Start teachers, parents of children in a Head Start program, or both. The National Head Start Association, a private, non-profit organization, believes these families can and should protest the Bush plan to convert the funding to block grants.
The Bush administration believes this public expression of concern would constitute illegal lobbying. As they see it, federal law prohibits using public funds or resources to lobby Congress. To make sure these parents and teachers keep quiet, the administration has sent terse letters to Head Start center across the country with stern warnings not to contact lawmakers about Bush’s plan.
“Your political activities are governed and, in many ways, restricted or limited by federal law,” the letter explains. It goes on to say that those who follow suggestions from the National Head Start Association about speaking out against the block grant plan would be “in direct violation of the laws that govern your political activities.”
This effort to silence critics is not only a sad attempt at intimidation, it’s a selective use of principles. Every government agency encourages Congress to increase their budget and discourages lawmakers from cutting funds. When an Army general appears on Capitol Hill for a hearing and tells a congressional committee that the armed forces would be better off with some new tank or airplane, it’s not illegal lobbying, it’s the process of government. I don’t see the administration sending curt letters to the Pentagon, warning military officials not to contact Congress about their budget.
Yet the Bush administration would have us believe that if a teacher at a Head Start center tells one of the kids’ parents to contact Congress to express support for Head Start funding, it’s a violation of federal law.
This is nonsense. As a spokesperson for from the National Head Start Association said, “Head Start has been around for 38 years and no previous administration has ever seen fit to twist and contort the federal laws in order to justify what appears to be an unconstitutional attempt to silence the critics of its proposal.”
The administration is basing its twisted argument on something called the Hatch Act, which bars lobbying with federal funds. I’m no lawyer, but from my reading of the legal restrictions for state and federal employees, “twisting and contorting” sounds about right.
This is pretty low, even for this administration. They want to try and gut Head Start? Well, that’s pretty typical. After all, we’ve got to make more room for those tax cuts for millionaires. But to try and scare parents and teachers away from expressing their concerns to Congress? That’s just shameful.