500 Education, Training, Employment & Social Services:Sunset Head Start to Make Way for Better State and Local Alternatives
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2016887
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20171806
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20182711
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20193699
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20204800
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20215891
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20226979
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20238126
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20249207
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202510281
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2016-202013903
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2016-202554387
Sources
Savings are expressed as budget authority and were calculated by using the FY 2015 requested spending levels as found on page 108 of Department of Health and Human Services, “Fiscal Year 2015: Budget in Brief, Strengthening Health and Opportunity for All Americans”. The savings assume that current spending would continue to grow from its FY 2015 requested level at the same rate as discretionary spending over the 2016–2025 period, as specified in the most recent August 2014 CBO baseline. The alternative policy would reduce the FY 2015 level as specified. The savings represent the difference between the current and proposed policies.
×Technical Notes on Scoring
CBO Baseline
Unless otherwise noted, calculations for savings for each recommendation relies on the most recent Congressional Budget Office baseline, as found in “An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2014 to 2024,” published August 27, 2014, has been used.
Savings “Totals”
While totals for the five and 10 year savings are provided by section and for the complete set of recommendations, there are two reasons they should not be viewed as representing total savings for The Budget Book.
First, as noted in the introduction, The Heritage Foundation would recommend that the savings realized in the Function 050 Defense section would stay within the Department of Defense to strengthen the nation’s defense capabilities.
Second, the numbers cannot be deemed to represent the realized savings if every single recommendation were adopted because policy changes made in one program can impact spending levels in other programs. Thus, the numbers in the table do not reflect any potential interactions between the various policy changes affecting spending or savings.
×Heritage Recommendation:
Sunset Head Start over 10 years. Specifically:
- Appropriate 90 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 16.
- Appropriate 80 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 17.
- Appropriate 70 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 18.
- Appropriate 60 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 19.
- Appropriate 50 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 20.
- Appropriate 40 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 21.
- Appropriate 30 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 22.
- Appropriate 20 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 23.
- Appropriate 10 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 24.
- Appropriate 0 percent of the program’s FY 15 budget in FY 25.
This proposal saves $54.4 billion over 10 years.
Rationale:
The federal Head Start program has failed to live up to its stated mission of improving kindergarten readiness for children from low-income families. In December 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that administers Head Start, released a scientifically rigorous evaluation of more than 5,000 children participating in the program. It found that Head Start had little to no impact on cognitive skills, social-emotional well-being, health, or parenting practices of participants. Low-income families should not have to be dependent on distant, ineffective federal preschool programs.
As such, Congress should sunset the federal Head Start program over a period of 10 years. The sunset provision will provide states with adequate time to determine whether they need to provide additional state funding to subsidize day care for low-income families.
Contributing Expert

Lindsey Burke researches and writes on federal and state education issues as the Will Skillman fellow in education policy at The Heritage Foundation. Burke focuses on two critical areas of education policy: reducing the federal role in education and empowering families with school choice.


Lindsey BurkeWill Skillman Fellow in Education
Heritage Expert

Brittany Corona is a Research Assistant for Domestic Policy Studies with The Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity

Additional Reading
- Lindsey M. Burke and David B. Muhlhausen, “Head Start Impact Evaluation Report Finally Released,” Heritage Foundation Issue Brief No. 3823, January 10, 2013.
- David B. Muhlhausen, “Head Start Program: Fraudulent and Ineffective,” Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 2919, May 28, 2010.