Kirk Watson: “Head Start is needed now more so than ever. With the new TANF requirements, you as a welfare recipient have to go back…”

“Head Start is needed now more so than ever. With the new TANF requirements, you as a welfare recipient have to go back to work when the child is 6 months old. That means you are not in the home from zero to 5 to help nurture that child and teach them because you are working, and you are working a full day. So we need Head Start now so children can be ready to learn when they go to kindergarten, simple things like tying one's shoe, buttoning one's jacket, being able to share and work with others, those things that were done in the home that will no longer be able to be done in the home because one parent has to go to work, and these are single-parent families so they do not have the time to train their child. Head Start was created during the War on Poverty during the 1960s. It was the best thing we did to close the safety net. Why would we take a program which has had such successful outcomes, and these can be measured, and start whittling it away? I do not understand the thinking. It will cost us less in the long run to have a Head Start program and not a block grant in every State.”