Michael Castle: “I believe particularly in the areas of just well-being, in nutrition and medicine, it has been a tremendous amount of…”

“I believe particularly in the areas of just well-being, in nutrition and medicine, it has been a tremendous amount of help. This program has been continued pretty much as is directly from the Federal Government to the local grantees who run the Head Start programs. It serves today about 900,000 students at about $7,100 a year. Most of the 4-year-olds that are eligible are served. Some 3-year-olds are served. And they go to school for roughly half the year for roughly half a day. I think all of this is in the interest of these children because we are dealing with children who are at 100 percent of poverty, or roughly $20,000 for a family of four. So for that reason, I think we can agree that Head Start does some good things.”