Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

NHSA Highlights for 2002

Jan 08, 2003

Update January 8, 2003

Year in Review and
A Look Ahead for 2003

NHSA Highlights for 2002
On the legislative front, 2002 was a good year for the Head Start
community. Although there were a few areas in which the results didn?’t match
the incredible effort that was put in, Head Start children and families
can rest comfortably knowing that NHSA was a strong advocate for their
concerns. Moreover, the entire Head Start community worked hard this
year in partnership with NHSA to organize and to ensure that they were
heard in the halls of Congress. Here?’s a brief list of some of the
legislative highlights of 2002 we were able to accomplish together:

NHSA Educates Congress on the Need to Keep Head Start in the Department
of Health and Human Services
?· Sent President Bush a sign-on letter of 60 national organizations
opposed to moving Head Start from the Department of Health and Human
Services to the Department of Education.
?· Worked with members of Congress during congressional hearing in which
members grilled both DHHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and Secretary of
Education Rod Paige regarding the move to the Department of Education.
?· Completed a literacy and language paper surveying what Head Start
programs are doing nationally to improve the outcomes of Head Start
graduates.
?· Started a National Petition to ?“Stop the Move.?”
?· Conducted numerous site visits for congressional staff.
?· Developed strong ties with members of Congress and staff with
numerous visits and communication.

NHSA Tells Congress to do ?“The Right Thing?” and Fully Fund Head Start
?· Held two full funding coalition meetings to secure a $1 billion
increase in funding for Head Start. Coalition partners include organizations
such as the Children?’s Defense Fund, NAEYC, United Way, National
Association of Child Advocates, Child Welfare League of America, RESULTS,
Coalition for Human Needs, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, Volunteers of
America, National Council of La Raza to name a few.
?· Developed a national sign-on letter in which over 60 national
organizations joined with NHSA in supporting a $1 billion increase in funding
for 2003.
?· Submitted written testimony to both the Senate and House.
?· Held several national call-in days in which the Head Start community
generated thousands of calls to members of Congress.
?· Literally hundreds of meetings with congressional staff and members
of Congress.
?· Result so far: Senate?—$332 (an increase of 17,000 children), House
(yet to be determined).

NHSA Lets Congress and the Administration know that the time is now for
serving the youngest children
?· Sent letters to key members of Congress and the administration
regarding allowing Head Start programs the flexibility to serve children
pre-natal to age 5.
?· Held several meetings with key legislative staff to explain the need
for this legislative change.
?· Result: Senate Report Language includes specific provision asking HHS
to allow Head Start programs the flexibility to serve the youngest
children.

NHSA makes case that Head Start programs need the flexibility to serve
children above the already low income guidelines
?· Intense lobbying effort included letters and several meetings with
key staff.
?· Result: Senate Report Language includes specific provision asking HHS
to increase the percentage of over-income children Head Start can serve
from 10 percent to 25 percent.

NHSA works with coalition partners on welfare and child care
legislation to make sure that programs work for people not against them
?· Joined with RESULTS on their welfare Hill day and presented at their
annual conference.
?· Made several Hill visits on welfare and child care legislation.
?· Result: Kept Head Start out of House bill?’s ?“Super waiver?” provision.
This would have been as if Head Start were block granted to the states.
Fought to make education, training, and quality child care key
components of Senate welfare bill.

NHSA joins with the American Dental Association and the Children?’s
Dental Health Project to Make Dental Care More Accessible to Low Income
Children
?· Submitted testimony to Senate HELP committee on the problems Head
Start children face in order to receive proper dental care.
?· Participated in a discussion about children?’s dental care with
American Dental Association at September Leadership Institute.
?· Result: Working with members of Congress on legislation to correct
the problem.

NHSA Gets Significant Media Attention
?· Appeared in most major newspapers responding to the president?’s Early
Childhood Initiative and the proposal to move Head Start to the
Department of Education including the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and USA
Today. Also appeared on several radio shows and television programs
including Black Entertainment Television, Dallas Evening News, and the
McNeil Lehrer News Hour on public television.
?· Highlighted the great work programs are doing around literacy and
language development.

NHSA builds and mobilizes strong grassroots presence
?· Traveled across the country providing legislative updates and
grassroots trainings at national, regional, and state Head Start Association
conferences.
?· Developed new newsletter with advocacy tips.
?· Updated voter tool kit and launched aggressive Get out the Vote
Effort in which NHSA contacted Head Start programs in key states.
?· Unveiled the ?“Grassroots Action Room?” at the Annual Conference in
Phoenix, Arizona, to teach participants how to effectively educate and
influence decision-makers.
?· Held strategy conference call on Get out the Vote efforts and state
strategy conference calls with state associations such as the New Mexico
Head Start Association.

While there are many more highlights to mention you can see just from
this list that NHSA and the Head Start community have worked hard to
effectively advocate for issues important to us. Congratulations!

Parent Conference
From December 13 through 17, NHSA held its annual Parent Conference.
Because of the upcoming reauthorization and the long tradition of
producing an outstanding and professional event, more than 2,600 participants
came to Dallas, Texas. GAD staff provided a variety of workshops
including a legislative update, two grassroots trainings (including a
grassroots training just for fathers), a briefing on the January 29th Hearing
on the Hill, and a workshop on the First Amendment. GAD also worked
with RESULTS to put together the first train the trainer program. But the
buzz was about the Grassroots Action Room where participants learned
how to write letters to their members of Congress and were provided with
a brief grassroots training and legislative update. Impressively, in
their free time, participants sent over 750 letters and 500 post cards to
their members of Congress asking that they oppose any effort to move
Head Start to the Department of Education. Thank you to all those who
took the time out to write a letter to your member of Congress. You are
truly letting your voice be heard! As promised, if you are looking for a
sample letter on the move to the Department of Education, please check
our Web site at www.nhsa.org. Click on advocacy, and then go to Just
for Parents.

President?’s Agenda for 2003
On January 28th the president will give his annual State of the Union
Address. It has been rumored that he will make a major announcement
regarding early education and that he will likely to discuss, in some form,
his proposal to move Head Start to the Department of Education. Today
we learned some of the issues the president will propose and still need
to deal with in the next Congress. They include the following:
?· A $674 billion set of new tax cuts. Included in the ?“stimulus?”
package are tax breaks on dividends, an acceleration of income rate cuts, and
additional corporate tax breaks. In the meantime the president plans to
announce steep cuts in domestic spending to pay for this additional
give-away to the richest Americans. Analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice
found that most of the tax cuts will go to families with income over
$350,000 a year. For example, Bush?’s plan to accelerate the tax cuts means
that 70 percent of the benefits will go to the top five percent of
taxpayers and the lowest 80 percent of taxpayers will receive about 6.5
percent of the benefits. The president?’s budget fails to fund the
education bill he fought for in the last Congress and it cuts domestic spending
across the board, possibly including Head Start. The Center for Budget
and Policy Priorities estimates that about $3 billion would be cut from
programs that directly benefit low-income people. In one example, the
president intends to cut approximately $300 million from the program
that helps low-income families with home heating bills in the winter. Best
estimates suggest that about 500,000 people could lose home heating
assistance this winter.
?· Unemployment insurance. The Bush Administration failed to come to an
agreement to extend unemployment benefits before leaving for the
holidays. About 750,000 people were cut off from unemployment benefits on
December 28. The latest figures from the Labor Department report that
there are an additional 13,000 people each week filing for unemployment.
The Bush Administration has finally agreed to provide an extension to
those folks still looking for work.
?· Welfare Reform and child care. While the Senate bill was
significantly better than the House bill, only the House bill was passed. Because
the Senate changed hands, it is becoming likely that any welfare
legislation will focus heavily on sending people to work, marriage promotion,
and will restrict important support services such as child care and
education and training. This is unfortunate since unemployment has reached
6 percent and welfare caseloads are back up. The Center for Law and
Social Policy released a study last week showing that between July and
September 2002, caseloads rose in three-quarters of the states and in the
District of Columbia. Requiring more folks to leave the rolls for
either low-paying or non-existent jobs in an economic slowdown is poor
public policy, and NHSA will continue to fight for real welfare reform that
focuses on providing support services and the education and training to
make work pay and sustainable.
?· Prescription Drug benefit to Medicare. Both parties seem intent on
providing some form of prescription drug benefit to the elderly. However,
how to do it and how comprehensive the provision will be will continue
to be hotly debated.
?· Lawsuit Limitations. Republicans plan to try to limit damages from
multimillion dollar lawsuits, starting with curbs on medical malpractice
awards.
?· Faith Based Initiatives. The president will likely continue to blur
the lines between Church and State and provide additional opportunities
for religious groups to receive tax payer money to take over some
responsibilities of the government. Before the holidays the president issued
an executive order establishing faith based offices in every
Department.

Appropriations
However, the first order of business when Congress returns this week
will be to pass the 10 remaining spending bills, including appropriations
for Head Start. While NHSA has worked to secure a $332 million increase
in funding in the Senate, more than twice proposed by the Bush
Administration, those gains could be lost. The president has told Republican
leaders in both Houses to hold down domestic spending in effort to fund a
potential war with Iraq, homeland security, and to free up enough money
for additional tax breaks. Now is the time to weigh in with your member
of Congress. You can contact your member through the Capitol
switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Please tell them that you support at least an
increase of $332 million so that an additional 17,000 children can
participate in the program. Specifically, the following people need to be
contact immediately: Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV),
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), Representative
David Obey (D-WI), Representative Ralph Regula (R-OH), Representative
Bill Young (R-FL).

Federal Register
The office of Elementary and Secondary Education announces proposed
achieved indicators for the Early Childhood Educator Professional
Development Program for fiscal year 2003 and future year grants. This
professional development program is authorized by section 2151(e) of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as added by the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001, public law 107-110. The ECEPD program is a
discretionary grant program under which funded projects provide high quality,
sustained, and intensive professional development to improve the knowledge
and skills of early childhood educators who work in high-poverty
communities, particularly with disadvantaged young children. These grants are
part of the Good Start, Grow Smart initiative and are supposed to
complement the Department of Education?’s early learning programs. To comment
on the achievement indicators discussed in the announcement, please
speak with Patricia Mckee at (202) 260-0991. To look at the indicators and
proposed rule on the Web please go to
www.ed.gov/legislation/fedregister.

White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth
On December 23rd the Bush Administration announced a new task force to
be headed by Bush?’s top domestic policy advisor Margaret Spellings and
consisting of five departments to look at the issue of disadvantaged
youth. The task force seems to be about consolidating programs that deal
with disadvantaged youth and possibly making recommendations for
cutting certain programs targeted at this population in accordance with the
Bush Administration?’s desire to cut domestic spending. The first
preliminary report from the task force is due April 30, 2003. NHSA will be
providing you further details as more information becomes available.

Head Start Director?’s Meeting
On January 16th Windy Hill will has invited all Head Start directors to
Washington to discuss the president?’s initiatives for Head Start.
Likely to be discussed will be the national assessment tool and the
president?’s proposal to move Head Start to Department of Education. If you plan
on attending the meeting, please be prepared for the administration to
lay out their case for watering down Head Start so as to preempt
anything that may be said during the State of the Union Address regarding
Head Start. Please see attached talking points on why moving Head Start to
the Department of Education is a bad idea.

January 29th Hearing on the Hill
As a reminder, NHSA will be holding its own educational Hearing on the
Hill. Confirmed speakers include many prominent experts on Head Start
and several members of Congress. Please contact the NHSA Government
Affairs Division at (703) 739-0875 for more information.

Good Work!
Parents and friends from a Head Start in Clark County, Nevada, are
holding a rally outside the federal building in Las Vegas on January 17.
The message of their rally: ?“Keep Head Start in the Department of Health
and Human Services.?” One of their lead organizers, Tiffini Perez, a
Head Start parent, told NHSA that she was motivated to take action after
returning from our recent Parent Conference. She has lined up interviews
with several newspapers and television stations that are planning on
covering the rally. Good work! This is a perfect example of how NHSA and
the Head Start community can come together to fight for positive
change. Now more than ever it is important for us to be speaking with one
voice and to be unified as we move forward in the reauthorization process.
Together only good things can happen!



This document is paid for with Dollar per Child Campaign donations.
For more information on the campaign, contact
Joel Ryan, Brocklin Qualls, or Kahree Wahid in the NHSA Government
Affairs Division
Phone: (703) 739-0875 or Fax: (703) 739-0878