Future of Even Start, 46% of Whose Beneficiaries Are Latino, Remains in Doubt
By Adolfo Flores
Latino legislators and advocacy groups are urging leaders in the U.S. Senate to keep the Even Start family literacy program from being completely eliminated by supporting the $99 million that the House appropriated for it. Senate Appropriations Committee members have proposed to slash funding for it completely.
Although support for the program has been cut by 60% in the past three years, lawmakers and advocates claim eliminating
Even Start entirely would have devastating consequences for Latinos, since nearly half (46%) of beneficiary families are Hispanic. In 2005, the total number of families served was 43,156, but only 18,500 have been served so far this year.
“We find it incredible that they would cut a good program,” Sen. Robert Menéndez (D-N.J.) said at a press conference Sept. 25 in the U.S. Capitol. “This (program) is critical for closing achievement gaps and eliminating barriers that give Latinos and other minority children a disadvantage in this country.”
The program is aimed at parents with low income and low education levels. It provides parents the tools to promote early literacy and language development in their children. The parents attend English and parenting classes among others in order to prepare them.
Menéndez, along with Sens. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) and four others, have urged Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to reconsider the decision.
Menéndez and advocates explained the Senate is inclined to eliminate the program based on a study conducted by Abt Associates on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education. It concluded that Even Start is ineffective.
The study, Third National Even Start Evaluation: Program Impacts and Implications for Improvement, cited that while participants made gains on literacy assessments, they didn’t gain more than study participants who were not in the program. The National Council of La Raza maintained the study has methodological flaws. The gains that Latinos made were not represented in full because participants were tested only in English and a quarter of them were not English proficient, La Raza said.
(As published in Hispanic Link Weekly Report on Oct. 1 2007)