Head Start's a Non-Starter

The Democrat Party and its allies in the media have coated the Head Start program in a slick veneer that shields it from criticism and protects its funding from the shears of budget cutters.  However, the pre-school scheme deserves greater scrutiny in light of recent studies and investigations.

The program, a leftover from The Great Society, has a 50-year record of fraud, waste and gross mismanagement that has been thoroughly documented.  Head Start has failed miserably to deliver educational advantages to the poor succeeding only in providing free breakfasts.

Yet during the battle over sequester, President Obama warned that 70,000 poor children would be turned away from the program if budget cuts were implemented. Head Start opponents were labeled racists and enemies of the poor for daring to suggest the scheme needed reform, not more funding.

Despite its sorry record, taxpayers have ponied up $170 billion since 1965 when Head Start was originally launched as a six-week program.  As with many "temporary" government schemes, it has been enlarged over the intervening years without regard for the program's obvious deficiencies.

There is ample evidence that Head Start is a sham, failing to provide early childhood development services that could make a difference in a child's progress in school.

A blistering critique of the program was released last year by the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency which oversees Head Start.  The study, finished in 2008, was withheld from the public for four years until it was quietly published on the Friday before Christmas of 2012.

The media ignored the explosive report.  The president's mouthpiece, Jay Carney, dodged reporters' questions about the findings. Congressional Democrats buried the HHS report, shoveling platitudes on the program instead of using the findings to dig into its shortcomings.

In its report, the HHS unearthed little evidence that the program generates much of a return for the enormous taxpayer dollars invested in Head Start.  The study found that children enrolled in Head Start gained no lasting advantages by participation in the pre-school program.

The report concluded that "the benefits of access to Head Start at age 4 are largely absent by first grade."  Head Start graduates significantly lagged behind their peers who were not enrolled in the government run program, according to the findings.

The HHS report card isn't even the worst failing grade Head Start has received.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has documented since 2000 waste and blatant cheating at Head Start.  Among its findings, about 76 percent of Head Start students did not meet the program's own financial guidelines geared to serve low-income families.

In addition, the GAO has exposed numerous conspiracies to register "fictitious children" to increase funding to local branches of Head Start.  The agency also has unmasked attempts to enroll children from middle-income families in slots reserved for children in low-income households.

Despite the many recorded examples of gross mismanagement and fraud, Head Start funding keeps soaring.  Obama has indicated he wants to increase annual Head Start funding by another $1 billion. Taxpayers are on the hook for $8 billion in 2013.

When will the mindless waste stop?

Don't expect cowardly politicians of either party to provide the answer.  Reform will only come if taxpayers demand a full accounting of Head Start before Congress spends another nickel on a disgraced scheme that fails poor children and their families.