Head Start is a federal program that serves children and families in low-income communities by providing services that support early learning, health, nutrition, and family well-being. The program has served more than 38 million children since it was established in 1965. In 2023, around 820,000 children were enrolled in Head Start.

Severino’s claims that the program has little or no long-term value are false.

“This substantial investment in children is justified by evidence that early investments—and preschool in particular—change outcomes for children. The base of what we know about the effects of early childhood education on long-term outcomes is the result of experiments. Decades-spanning longitudinal studies of experimental preschool programs like HighScope/Perry Preschool and Abecedarian find those who participated in these early childhood educational interventions persist in education, have higher earnings and commit fewer crimes than the control group. New research on the intergenerational effect of Perry Preschool by Nobel laureate James Heckman and Ganesh Karapakula finds that participants were more stably married, that their children were less likely to be suspended from school, and more likely to graduate from high school and be employed.” Source: The Brookings Institute

These are the exact outcomes for children that Severino claims to want. There is no good reason to do this other than to punish poor children and families. Here’s some more on why Head Start is a solid investment in our communities.

Full contextual analysis of Section 3.5: Department of Health and Human Services here.