In Alaska In Alaska, just 33% of children achieve the state’s requirements to be ready for kindergarten. However, the percentage of state the funding allocated to Head Start, a mostly federally-funded health and child care program designed to promote the readiness of children from those with lower incomes, is much less than it was 10 years earlier.
This year was the first time that the Legislature set aside $5 million for an increase in order that it could be used to ensure that the state’s Head Start programs could match federal funding, however Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed most of it, cutting the amount up to $1.5 million.
Program directors like Mark Lackey, who runs the Head Start in Wasilla, worried that he might not be able to recruit and keep enough teachers.
“I are on wait lists which are, well, that are miles wide,” he said. “For long, I’ve been telling people that if I had the funds to invest in the job, I’d be able to help more than twice as many kids.”
However, he claimed that he does not have the funds. The program and six other within the State are under notice from the federal government their funding could be in danger should they not hire more teachers.
“We’ve had 12 months to become fully in the program,” he said. “I am not able to keep people working. Because the job I provide to people is tough and challenging as well as physically and emotionally demanding. When you think of the school of 18 children aged 4 — that’s very hard work. My teacher’s assistants currently, well that they could earn even more cash by working at Target.”
He explained that he’s dependent on a sustainable source of income in order to pay teachers who enable students to enroll. If he had received his share of the proposed increase of $5 million for Head Start, the Head Start program, he estimated that he would have received $500,000 to boost the salaries of teachers. Instead, he estimates that his program will receive about $150,000. “That isn’t a lot. This isn’t going to be a significant difference for retention or recruitment,” he said.
In the years since the Head Start program in its current form was introduced in Alaska in the early 1980s, the state has provided funding to ensure federal dollars continue flowing into the state to fund the program. For the first couple of decades in Head Start Head Start program, the state was able to meet the 20% requirement to run a program in accordance with federal law. However, since 2010, according to Lackey it’s been slipping. The state now funds just 12percent from the matching amount, and the care centers must find the remainder of the funds.
He noted that this is more challenging than ever before, as the state-wide child care shortage implies that Head Start programs have to raise their rates to be competitive with school districts as well as other centers for care.
“I believe we won’t close,” he said. “But I’m concerned that we’ll be serving the smallest number of children. That’s the main danger for us.”
The center he works at provides services to children who are in foster care or are homeless. “The children we don’t serve really require our help,” he said.
Not just for education.
Head Start is an early education program however, it also is focused on families as well. This means working with parents to ensure an employment and housing stability which can help to ensure a child’s stability for better health and improved learning outcomes.
Trevor Storrs leads Alaska Children’s Trust, a child advocacy group that is focused on stopping neglect and abuse in Alaska. He stated that there is no other program in Alaska comparable to Head Start.
“Head Start,” as we refer to it is actually a primary preventative,” he said. “They collaborate with the whole family, connecting the family to resources, offering assistance at home, and other things like that. This way they are able to address the economic and social challenges of education, health as well as general issues of family and community.”
Storrs described it as what he called an “upstream” option that can help the state save money by tackling social issues like hunger, homelessness neglect, and unemployment before they become a problem.
Storrs stated that the amount the state is putting into education has been drastically reduced over the past 10 years. If adjusted for inflation the amount has decreased by more than 15%..
“It’s not surprising that we face more issues like mental health and food insecurity, etc. All such issues were viewed as a constant state of growth in these areas, rather than diminishing,” he said. “We’re not doing enough in prevention that is primary and this is more cost-effective than the downstream.”
Deborah Riddle supervises a Head Start team in Alaska’s education department. She said it’s difficult to provide education programs throughout the world. “Head Start, and the early childhood certificates or certificates can be… and we’re also struggling with it too,” she said.
Riddle told me that the Head Start employees are working to find ways to get more teachers to Head Start, such as an education and certification program that is being offered in certain high schools.
The story first appeared in Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.
