In anticipation of the 1994 reauthorization of the Head Start Act, this oversight hearing sought testimony from California county government grantees managing groups of Head Start facilities, program directors, teachers, parents, and other participants. Following introductory comments by subcommittee members, Andrew Kennedy, senior Head Start project director in Los Angeles (LA) County, addressed the changes needed to improve Head Start and key issues facing the LA County program, including the incorporation of Head Start in a Family Service Center model, services for substance abusers and the homeless, and the need for innovation and flexibility. Kennedy's prepared statement also focused on changes in services, the impact of recent expansion, quality assurance measures, innovative programs in LA county, future trends, and coordination with other programs. Next, a Congressional Research Service fact sheet on Head Start was presented and is included in the record. The transcript of a question-and-answer period follows, focusing on licensing problems, local control, funding, student tracking, performance standards, and teacher qualifications. Next, a panel comprised of program managers and participants offered testimony on the history, characteristics, and achievements of programs in Bakersfield, Los Angeles, South El Monte, and Compton. Topics covered include possible approaches to future expansions, maintaining quality as Head Start expands, facility needs, and parent involvement. Statements by Jo Navarro of the American Federation of Teachers and Hortense Hunn of San Bernardino's Preschool Services Department are also included. (AC)

Head Start is a federal program that has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1996. Services provided to preschool-aged children include child development, educational health, nutritional, social and other activities, intended to prepare low-income children for entering kindergarten. The program is administered by the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unlike many other social service programs, federal Head Start funds are provided directly to local grantees, rather than through states. Programs are locally designed, and are administered by a network of about 1,500 public and private nonprofit agencies. outlines the past, present and future of this socially beneficial program. The long-term impact on the children aided, particularly with respect to educational attainment, is addressed and continues to be an area of focus and concern. In addition, the numerous roadblocks that exist with regard to the Head Start program, are assessed and handled accordingly. CONTENTS: Preface; Head Start: Background and Funding (Alice Butler and Melinda Gish); Head Start Issues in the 108th Congress (Alice Butler and Melinda Gish); Head Start: Better Data and Processes Needed to Monitor Underenrollment (Marnie S. Shaul); Bibliography; Index.

As the distribution of wealth between rich and poor in the United States grew more and more unequal over the past twenty years, this economic gap assumed a life of its own in the popular culture. The news and entertainment media increasingly portrayed the lives of the poor with such stereotypes as the lazy welfare mother and the thuggish teen, offering Americans few ways to learn how the "other half" really lives. Laboring Below the Line works to bridge this gap by synthesizing a wide range of qualitative scholarship on the working poor. The result is a coherent, nuanced portrait of how life is lived below the poverty line, and a compelling analysis of the systemic forces in which poverty is embedded, and through which it is perpetuated. Laboring Below the Line explores the role of interpretive research in understanding the causes and effects of poverty. Drawing on perspectives of the working poor, welfare recipients, and marginally employed men and women, the contributors—an interdisciplinary roster of ethnographers, oral historians, qualitative sociologists, and narrative analysts—dissect the life circumstances that affect the personal outlook, ability to work, and expectations for the future of these people. For example, Carol Stack views the work aspirations of an Oakland teenager for whom a job is important, even though it strains her academic performance. And Ruth Buchanan looks at low-wage telemarketing workers who are attempting to move up the economic ladder while balancing family, education, and other important commitments. What emerges is a compelling picture of low-wage workers—one that illustrates the precarious circumstances of individuals struggling with the economic conditions and institutions that surround them Each chapter also explores the capacity for economic survival from a different angle, with ancillary commentary complementing the ethnographies with perspectives from other fields of study, such as economics. At this moment of governmental retrenchment, ethnography's complex, nonstereotypical portraits of individual people fighting against poverty are especially important. Laboring Below the Line reveals the ambiguities of real lives, the potential for individuals to change in unexpected ways, and the even greater intricacy of the collective life of a community.