Using early projects like the High-Scope Perry Preschool Project as mo.docx
- 1. Using early projects like the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project as models, the US Department of Health and Human Services launched Head Start in 1965. Head Start was part of President Johnson's "Great Society" initiative, a grand scheme to eliminate the twin evils of poverty and racial injustice. Head Start provided federal funds to local projects that incorporated early childhood education, school readiness training, primary health care, nutrition, and support to parents. The target was high-risk children, mostly inner-city African Americans. The goal was for children from deprived backgrounds to catch up with more privileged children and thus be able to compete more effectively in school, ultimately improving equality of opportunity between the races. The Head Start program continues to this day; it costs approximately $8 billion annually. Almost immediately, Head Start was met with a backlash from conservative Americans. The Great Society initiative in general, and Head Start in particular, were accused of undermining the African-American family, subsidizing unwed pregnancy, and fostering a generation of "welfare queens" relying on taxpayer-funded programs. In consequence, programs have failed to gain legitimacy and are of highly variable quality. That may be the reason why evaluations of Head Start typically yield mixed results. Some evaluations find large positive, persistent impacts on child development, whereas other studies claim that Head Start programs provide little or no sustained benefit. Smaller-scale early childhood initiatives have been undertaken in Canada and Australia (the Canadian federal Indigenous Head Start program is an example). In the United Kingdom, in 1998, the Labour government launched Sure Start, an area- based intervention in neighbourhoods considered to be deprived. Sure Start includes early childhood education, school readiness, primary health care, and family support. Currently, the Conservative government in the UK is rolling back Sure Start and abandoning most program- related issues cash-strapped local authorities. Why do you think Head Start-type programs have proved to be so controversial? Wher ieneralized from well-funded and carefully managed projects to large-scale programs neir benefits become less clear. Why might that be so?