A $166B failure:
…if the president were true to his own rhetoric, he would immediately reverse course. At least six times since the fall of 2008, President Obama has said: “We’ve got to eliminate programs that don’t work, and we’ve got to make sure that the programs that we do have are more efficient and cost less.” Well, Mr. President, your own Department of Health and Human Services has demonstrated that Head Start does not work.
Anyone want to make book on whether or not he will?
No one should be surprised. Much of The Great Society was, and remains an expensive failure, not just for the taxpayers, but for those it was supposed to help. Yet the so-called “progressives” want to double down on it.
For those it was really supposed to help it was an enormous success… Think of all the political careers furthered by it.
Visit http://www.hcz.org/programs/early-childhood and click on the radio show in the right hand column. You don’t have to listen to the whole thing — just move the horizontal scroll bar to approximately 9:10 and listen for a minute or two. You’ll learn why poor kids don’t do well in school. If you listen for a minute or two more, you’ll hear a university of Chicago economics prof give the best recipe he knows for ending poverty. I strongly recommend these few minutes of listening.
The whole show is about the The Harlem Children’s Zone Project, run by Geoffrey Canada (I know, he has a funny last name). Geoffrey Canada’s work has been specifically highlighted by President Obama as the future of Head Start. What makes the project different is that it teaches parents of preschoolers how to be better parents, and it works – it gets results.
Poke around hcz.org, and see these two websites for more info:
http://www.paultough.com/qanda.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618569898/interactiveda8083-20
If the current Head Start program doesn’t work (not proven, but lets stipulate that it doesn’t work), then look at the websites above to learn about what is likely to be the future of Head Start.
Bob, why do you think government would do this, if given the opportunity? They’ve had decades to demonstrate this approach with public education. Sure, teaching someone how to learn, discipline, knowledge, etc is more difficult when they’re older, but it’s far from impossible. The fact that things have been getting steadily worse (from top to bottom) over the decades indicates to me that there is something fundamentally broken with the public education system.
I don’t dispute that some sort of government program which targets the very young could be extremely beneficial to the US. What I dispute is the claim that the US public education system would do this, if only we funded them to do so. I see no reason to increase the reach of the public education system without some demonstration that they can deliver on the effort.
Hi Karl,
I think you are asking if the HCZ model works, while granting that it probably does (but proof is desirable!) and you are asking whether the US government would do it. The proof the model works can be found in the links I provided above, as well as by simply googling “Harlem Children’s Zone”. The question of whether and how the US government might replicate Geoffrey Canada’s model is answered in the following Washington Post article, which describes the Obama’s administration’s plans to replicate the HCZ model in 20 cities:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/01/AR2009080102297.html
Karl, I value your comments, but I’m posting late at night after a long day. If I’m not answering your questions or if I’m missing your point, please let me know and I’ll try again.
Any one know where to find the the Health and Human Services study? The PajamasMedia article doesn’t have a link to the report.