Four more years!

Four years after it was due for reauthorization, the Head Start Act is finally on the President’s desk for signature. Congress presented the bill to the President on December 5th and he has 10 business days to sign it into law. Unlike the appropriation bills heading his way this December, this will be signed by the President. There is no veto threat.

The bill, HR 1429, the Improving Head Start Act of 2007, makes a number of changes and clarifications to the current law including a renewed focus on the quality of teachers, increased eligibility thresholds, more funding to expand programs for younger children, migrant and Native American students, and more. For additional details please refer to the summary attached to the November 16th Federal Update.
These changes took difficult negotiations, but they are nothing compared to the scope of work that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) will require; and the treacherous politics will make it more difficult. So, if Head Start took four years what does that mean for ESEA? That is a popular question in Washington these days.

Education pundits are hedging their bets from 2009 to 2011. Those leaning toward 2009 realize that politics has to give way to practical needs, and soon. While this law is too important not to be a rhetorical centerpiece of the 2008 elections, the fact that thousands of schools are cascading along the sanctions of section 1116 imposes a practical urgency on the reauthorization. A set of “Washington Insiders” made such a prediction in January and it looks like that estimate remains valid. (Disclosure: Brustein & Manasevit was part of that insider survey). Those leaning closer to 2011 have likely been in Washington much longer than the rest of us and have seen the political polarization accentuate the sclerosis of such large and technical bills. Four years of rancor is not unforeseeable.

Yet, as noted in previous Updates, the time line must not breed complacency. The language that will emerge in 2009 is a product of today’s advocacy and, considering the debate that surrounds the current House Discussion Draft, much advocacy and analysis remains ahead.

Resource:
Crystal Apple: Education Insiders’ Predictions for No Child Left Behind’s Reauthorization (Thomas B. Fordham Foundation: January 8, 2007) January 4, 2007, http://www.edexcellence.net/institute/publication/publication.cfm?id=365.
Author: DAD