(Host) Hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing into Vermont through the federal stimulus package.
What’s all that money being spent on? Today, we begin to answer that question with an occasional series … "Tracking the Stimulus".
As VPR’s Ross Sneyd reports, $18 million is going to various Head Start programs for pre-school children around the state.
(Head Start Class) "What do you have over there? Do you know what these are called? Why don’t you tell me? It looks like a fox. This is a wolf and this is a hyena. And we actually have a second hyena here.”
(Sneyd) Hyenas. Giraffes. Lions. Cheetahs. This is a Head Start class at the John F. Kennedy School in Winooski.
Head Start is the program for pre-school children that was part of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” initiative.
Children between the ages of 3 and 5 go to what amounts to pre-school. But they also get some dental care. Their parents can take advantage of social services and classes. Early Head Start even works with expectant parents.
Barb Batdorf is a Head Start teacher here.
(Batdorf) "It’s really important because it gives them a heads-up or a head start before they come to elementary school. It gives them a chance to be with other kids to learn a little about what school is all about and about what their part is in a place like a school. Or just the big wide world.”
(Sneyd) And so the children pick up plastic animals and arrange them in groups. Their participation in these activities tells the teachers something about their level of development.
Or they play in a big tub of rice. On this day, they’re building a mountain. Delia French is supervising the project.
(French) “It’s a tactile thing. It’s just for some of the kids, the feeling is great. They learn fine motor: Scooping, pouring, using the little spoons. Oh, careful, William, keep it in the table, OK. It’s just for fun.”
(Sneyd) Head Start has not fared very well in recent years. Teachers in the program make around $25,000 or $30,000 a year. Funding for the program has declined after accounting for inflation.
Donna Bailey is co-director of the Addison County Parent-Child Center.
(Bailey) “It’s vital that we have children in high quality and safe places while their parents are at work. Here in Vermont we have been in a crisis around child care. We have infant toddler centers that have been closing, as well as other early childhood programs that have closed due to the lack of funding. So this is an important step in the right direction.”
(Sneyd) Paul Behrman is director of Champlain Valley Head Start. He says the stimulus money should help the seven Head Start programs around the state begin to recover from underfunding.
(Behrman) “We’re hopeful that it may enable us to do a few different things. One is to serve more children and families, to expand the program. Because we have a significant number of eligible yet unserved children and families in our region. Second, is to look at potentially expanding the program into more full-day, full-year services to meet the needs of working parents and parents going to school or those attending training programs.”
(Sneyd) Together, the Head Start programs and child care centers will get about $2 million more to spend in the next year than they’ve had up to now.
(Head Start Class) Sound of children’s music, toys.
Given the hundreds of billions that’s being spent on the stimulus, that may not sound like much. But Behrman says it will pay for a lot of rice and plastic animals – and the teachers who can put them to use.
For VPR News, I’m Ross Sneyd.