Dodd Speaks Out Against Head Start Cuts
By Bill Yelenak
WASHINGTON–Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) spoke to over 300 parents, concerned citizens and children involved with the National Head Start program Wednesday about continued funding for Head Start.
Dodd said he had suggested an amendment to the omnibus appropriations bill under consideration in Congress to raise the level of funding by about $200 million for Head Start, which has 29 programs in Connecticut and 373 classes, according to statistics from the National Head Start Association. Dodd’s amendment “didn’t get very far,” he said, and it was not added to the bill.
However, a modified version of the amendment did pass, allowing Head Start to be exempt from any across-the-board cuts that could take place when the appropriations bill is finalized.
“If that exemption is not included in the final version, over 22,000 children will be cut from the program,” Dodd said.
“The reason Head Start has worked so successfully over the years is because we worked with the whole child,” he said, referring to the wide-ranging approach to education the program takes.
The proposed Head Start reauthorization, backed by the White House, would attempt to move the program from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Education. Dodd attacked this proposal, emphasizing the fact that there is more to the program than simply educational needs. Dodd called the possible switch his “greatest fear” for the program.
“My greatest fear is because people don’t understand the population being served, they will move this from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Education,” Dodd said.
Dodd also said in a statement that “nearly 20 percent of Head Start’s 3-5 year old children have witnessed a violent crime or domestic violence, and three percent were victims themselves.” Additionally, he said nearly 250,000 Head Start students do not speak English as their first language. For these reasons and more, Dodd said, the program should not switch departments.
Dodd, who has been a champion of the Head Start program for many years, was chairman of the subcommittee on children and families of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the last session of Congress. But with Republicans taking control of the Senate after last November’s election, Dodd lost his chairmanship and will now be the ranking Democratic member on the committee. But Dodd made clear that would not lessen his advocacy for Head Start.
“The rules allow us in the minority to be heard and to be very involved in the process,” Dodd said.
Sarah Greene, president and CEO of the National Head Start Association, said Dodd’s contributions to the Head Start program have been enormous.
“We once named Sen. Dodd our senator of the decade, but I think we should have named him senator of the century,” Greene said.
To further illustrate their point that the Head Start program is a success, the organizers of the event ushered in approximately 25 Head Start students, aged 3 to 5, from the District of Columbia, who sang a song both in English and Spanish.
“Great song,” Dodd remarked, as he clapped for them at the conclusion of their presentation.
Bill Yelenak, a Boston University student, works at the Boston University Washington News Service in Washington, D.C. His telephone number is 202-756-2860 ext: 114 and his email is byelenak@newbritainherald.com.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
