Georgia's Head Start program could test Bush's plan

[Nambe]

ATLANTA (AP)

Georgia could be among the states chosen to test President Bush's plan to put Head Start under state control, a prospect welcomed by the governor but a cause for concern among some advocates of the early childhood program. ---

Georgia's nationally recognized pre-K program makes the state a strong contender for the pilot program, officials from the Office of School Readiness said Wednesday.

Last month, Gov. Sonny Perdue said he supported the controversial federal bill. ---

Critics say states could wind up unaccountable to federal performance standards.

"I think the program would get swallowed up by the Board of Education and quite frankly, the boards of education all over the state are not doing too well with handling money," Head Start teacher Brenda Collins said. "It would effectively kill Head Start in this state."

Collins, a teacher at the Family Resource Agency in Rossville, fears if the state takes over the program, Head Start will lose its comprehensive mission of health, nutrition and parental involvement.

"Someone is going to lose out and it's going to be these little babies," she said. "The state can't continue to put money and their time into programs. Some program is going to get left behind and it's going to be Head Start." ---


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[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Good news, actually.

No other state will do a better job to drive this program into the ground quicker, than Georgia.

[sandnsea]

2. Do these new proposals only give money to the poor?

I disagree with the whole thing anyway, but does anybody know if the States will be required to spend Head Start money ONLY on programs in poor neighborhoods? Otherwise we would obviously end up with preschool programs with the exact same funding problems public schools already have. That's the whole point of Head Start in the first place.