Obama announces new Head Start accountability standards

President Barack Obama visits a classroom at Yeadon Regional Head Start Center in Yeadon, Pa., Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011.

/ AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

YEADON, Pa. - Making his fourteenth visit to Pennsylvania, a state indispensable to his bid for re-election, President Obama on Tuesday dropped by a Head Start program to announce new funding standards for preschool education.

Under existing rules, said Mr. Obama, "there just wasn't enough accountability."

"If a program wasn't providing kids with quality services, there was no incentive to improve," said Mr. Obama in remarks outside of Philadelphia.

Under the administration's new rule, Head Start programs will be evaluated on a regular basis "against a set of clear high standards."

Mr. Obama believes the majority of Head Start programs will meet those standards and their federal grants will be renewed.

But for those programs that don't provide children the support and educational preparations they need, other organizations will be able to compete for the federal funding.

"We're not just gonna put money into programs that don't work," said the president. "We will take money and put them into organizations that do."

He said this is the "first time in history," that Head Start programs will be truly held accountable for performance in the classroom.

The new Head Start standard is the latest action Mr. Obama is taking under what he calls his "We Can't Wait" initiative.

It's intended to draw public attention to the failure of Congress to enact many of the jobs bill provisions he submitted to Congress on September 8.

"The Republicans in Washington have been trying to gut our investments in education," Mr. Obama said today, clearly laying blame at the feet of GOP members.

He said "we can't wait" to make sure schools give every child the chance to compete with young people from around the world.

Until Congress acts, Mr. Obama is taking action that does not require further Congressional approval.

Our CBS News tally shows today's Head Start announcement is the 29th speech in 8 states and the District of Columbia that Mr. Obama has made since first announcing his jobs bill.

"Congress still needs to act," said the president. "But if Congress continues to stand only for dysfunction and delay, then I'm going to move ahead without them."

[Bojax39]

Funny how we started with giving kids a "Head Start" and then later had to go back and make sure there was "No Child Left Behind". Sounds sort of like a race being lost, doesn't it?

Maybe we should scrap some of these failing government mandates then study and take our cues from countries with higher educational ratings than we have. That, coupled with funding more schools instead of cutting them ought to do the trick.

Unless of course the actual goal is to turn out some of the dumbest little mouth breathers on the planet thereby creating Americans who are just smart enough to vote and consume, and not much else....

[franknkissy]

We do not know the exact future success to money expended ratio for John F. Kennedy's Netional Youth Corps Program - but for many of us from working-class families - It provide solid work experience and good summer money !

Paz Intercesor recommends The President invest in such a program now !

[tktk53]

Our Government has no accountablity at all Everybody just steals and steals from us and nobody even cares No wonder that we are so far in debt
And let's give the all the countries that really hate us more money so WE THINK THEY LIKE US ACCOUNTABILITY THERE IS NONE TKTK53

[roth5101]

I ALWAYS THOUGHT OF HEAD START AS A FREE BABYSITTING SERVICE AND THAT PARENTS NEEDED TO BE MORE ACCOUNTABLE.
I THINK OBAMA'S NEW RULES WILL HELP IMMENSLEY.

[phuyay]

The people of Pennsylvania are too smart to fall for Obama's nonsense. The leaders of the state have signed on to natural gas drilling which has produced tens of thousand of jobs. Had they fallen for Obama's wind power and solar fiascos, the state would have missed the benefits of increased employment. However, there is still time for Obama's EPA to shut down the fracing involved with gas drilling. If so, it won't matter what liberal bilge Obama is pushing. He will lose the state.

[retm-w]

Hope you don't have well water, you'll be drinking those fracking chemicals. Of course your rivers will be polluted along with those in other states, when those companies dump the waste into them, which is what the plan to do.

[enoughsaidu]

We in Wisconsin have "fallen for Obama's wind power" and it has created many jobs. If our republician nasty govenor would stop being so pig headed we would have even more jobs.