The Federal Government should have no role in education, it is a state function. The only time the Federal Government has a role is when situations like the old south are prevalent. For example; when the state will not honor the right's of all children to be treated equally under the law and be allowed to attend non-segregated schools. In this instance it is entirely proper for the Feds to take action as the state would be in violation of the Constitution and had made it clear they would not allow blacks into schools as equal citizens therefore they would not come into compliance with the Constitution. In these rare instances it is the Feds that must step in to right that type of wrong.

It is the sole responsibility of the State and Local governments to raise the money to educate their children. Abolish the federal Department of Education now!

I'm loath to believe any one book's perspective on as controversial a program as Head Start, especially in today's political climate, but if you want to read just one, I suggest "Children As Pawns" published by Harvard University Press. It aims to give a balanced and well-researched examination of some of the most controversial subjects in public education. Chapter one covers Head Start.

According to studies cited in the book, Head Start leads to a short term but not long term boost in IQ. That is, kids who have been in head start for 2 school years measure higher on IQ tests in the first few grades of school, but it evens out after that. So if your definition of Head Start working is that it permanently (or at least for 12 years) raises a child's performance on IQ tests, Head Start is a failure. Head Start is also a failure if you believe the goal is to eliminate poverty, reverse urban decay, or cure baldness.

Of course, Head Start is about a lot of things, and by other measures it is a great success. Children who went through Head Start were about half as likely to drop out of high school, less likely to need special education classes, and somewhat less likely to be held back a grade than comparable students who didn't go to Head Start. Head start makes significant contributions to students health and to parent's involvment in their child's education. In these ways Head Start is a success.

Does Head Start actually save money in the long run? Probably, but we don't know for sure. We know that an excellent preschool program returned more that $7 in societal savings for every $1 spent, but we also know that the quality of Head Start varies from place to place. The potential is there, it's just a matter of realizing it.

The big questions that tend to get muddled up in books like the Thernstroms are the ones like Jim Brown's, above. Even if it works and saves money, do we want the Federal Government to do it? For some reason Jim Brown does not, while I do, and there's probably not much to debate about there. It is not necessary to inflate or deflate the effectiveness of the program to support either of our sides.

You can download the FULL TEXT (271 pages) of "Children as Pawns" as a
PDF file. Head Start is covered in Chapter one.

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/pdf/HACCHI.pdf

Simon,

I do not want the Federal Government involved in anything that it is not given responsibility for by the Constitution. Those responsibilities not given to the Feds by the Constitution are reserved to the states and to the people, respectively. Besides, it is incredibly inefficient for the Feds to collect taxes from the states for education and then have to pay a bureaucracy to redistribute that money back to the states. Let the states raise the money they need within their own state to fund education at the level their citizens demand. Federal bureaucrats excell at making "one size fits all" regulations and demanding that states conform to them, all with no Constitutional authority to do such with respect to education, welfare, religion, guns, etc...etc..., the list could go on and on.

My point is that Utah's citizens may choose to have different educational requirements than New York state. The people of Idaho may not want to have their kids taught sex ed. The Feds have no Constitutional right to tell the citizens of any state how they must educate their children beyond assuring that all children have access to schools and that the laws are applied equally to all.

By butting into education the feds have stuck their noses into places that the Constitution does not give them authority. I want the US to remain a Republic, and to such an end I want the Feds to do only those things the Constitution gives it responsibility to do.

These are the things the Constitution empowers the Federal Government to do:

"...establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity..."

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