McCain Proposes Head Start Idea Already Adopted by Congress
Sen. John McCain has an idea for Head Start that is sure to generate broad support in Congress鈥攂ecause lawmakers have already passed it.
On his campaign Web site, the Republican presidential nominee says he wants to create 鈥淐enters for Excellence鈥� for Head Start programs to hold up certain local preschool programs as models.
鈥淲hile there are some excellent Head Start centers that can serve as models for leadership and best practices, far too many Head Start centers have fallen prey to the same institutional flaws that have undermined the larger public education system,鈥� Sen. McCain says on his site. 鈥淭hey lack quality instructors; they lack accountability to parents; and they are focused on process, not outcomes.
鈥淲e should build Centers for Excellence in Head Start that actually [lead] to excellence in all of the pre-K and early-learning programs that taxpayers support.鈥�
His colleagues in Congress obviously agree: They included a Centers for Excellence initiative in the Head Start reauthorization that President Bush signed into law last year. (鈥淏ush Signs Head Start, With Qualms,鈥� Dec. 19, 2007.)
Some of the Arizona senator鈥檚 other pre-K proposals aren鈥檛 likely to be as popular: Lawmakers have already rejected them, again during the years-long debate over legislation to renew Head Start.
His plan says that federally supported pre-K programs, including Head Start, must use 鈥渕eaningful, measurable standards designed to determine that students are ready for school by measuring their school readiness skills.鈥�
That sounds similar to the National Reporting System, a Bush administration initiative for testing Head Start pupils. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said the system wasn鈥檛 fair, in part because it鈥檚 tough to design assessments to measure learning outcomes for young children, many experts say.
Congress got rid of the testing during the reauthorization, over the administration鈥檚 objections.
Neither Sen. McCain nor his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, showed up for the final vote on the Head Start bill on Nov. 14, 2007. It passed the Senate 95-0. 鈥擜lyson Klein
Voter-Registration Drive Set for Local Head Start Centers
Voter-registration efforts are often a big part of political campaigns. Consider the decision by Sen. Obama鈥檚 campaign to have him accept the Democratic presidential nomination at Invesco Field in Denver, packed with 80,000 people, many from the swing state of Colorado. The nominee got more than just cheers鈥攈is campaign also collected attendees鈥� contact information for voter-registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. People had to provide that information in exchange for tickets.
So it may be no small thing for the National Head Start Association and the League of Women Voters to mount a voter-registration drive at the 2,600 Head Start programs across the country. The drive has the potential to reach the parents of 1 million children.
The drive is permitted by language in the federal legislation that reauthorized the Head Start program last year. The NHSA, in a press release announcing the voter drive, said: 鈥淭he specific provision allows 鈥榥onpartisan organizations鈥� to use Head Start facilities 鈥榙uring hours of operation . . . to increase the number of eligible citizens who register to vote in elections for federal office.鈥� 鈥�
The registration drive is officially nonpartisan but would likely help Sen. Obama more than Sen. McCain. Head Start centers most typically serve lower-income, urban areas that tend to vote Democratic. And Sen. Obama鈥檚 education plan calls for increasing funding for Head Start and quadrupling the number of children in Early Head Start (for children from birth to age 3). (See above for Sen. McCain鈥檚 pre-K ideas.) 鈥擬ichele McNeil
Palin: 鈥業鈥檓 a Product of Title IX,鈥� so Issue of Dual Role 鈥業rrelevant鈥�
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told Charles Gibson of ABC News during their recent interviews that questions about whether she can be both a mother and a high-powered politician are irrelevant, in part because she grew up under, and benefited from, the federal law that bars sex bias in public education.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex in federally funded education programs. The law is widely credited with increasing girls鈥� and women鈥檚 high school and college athletic opportunities.
Asked by Mr. Gibson in an interview aired Sept. 12 whether it was sexist for someone to ask whether Ms. Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, could manage a large family and the vice presidency, she said: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know. I鈥檓 lucky to have been brought up in a family where gender has never been an issue.
鈥淚鈥檓 a product of Title IX, also, where we had equality in schools that was just being ushered in with sports and with equal opportunity for education, all of my life. I鈥檓 part of that generation, where that question is kind of irrelevant, because it鈥檚 accepted. Of course you can be the vice president and you can raise a family.鈥�
Mr. Gibson accompanied the governor on a walk through Wasilla High School in Alaska, where in 1982, Ms. Palin, then Sarah Heath, was a member of the girls鈥� basketball team that won the state championship after she hit a crucial free throw late in the final game.
Ms. Palin also ran track and cross country at Wasilla High, and she is still an avid runner in addition to being a 鈥渉ockey mom,鈥� the Anchorage Daily News reported on Sept. 14.鈥擬ark Walsh
