Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU -- A House budget subcommittee Monday sliced more than $1 million out of Gov. Sarah Palin's proposed budget for Head Start and other early education programs, a move that incensed Democrats who say the state's kids desperately need such schooling.

State Rep. Kevin Meyer of Anchorage chairs the Republican-controlled finance subcommittee that made the cuts.

The panel cut a $600,000 funding increase the governor requested for Head Start because the Department of Education didn't have a clear plan for how the money would be used, Meyer said.

Head Start isn't a state program, he said. Rather, the state matches federal grants given to local nonprofits to run the program, which serves about 3,500 economically disadvantaged preschoolers, many of them living in rural areas.

About 1,000 Alaska kids are on a waiting list to get into Head Start, and Meyer said the Education Department didn't have solid information on what Head Start locations have space for more kids if the state spent more money.

"What are we getting for it?" Meyer said. "People have concerns we're just doing day-care service. I hope not. I hope we're actually teaching and getting kids ready to go to kindergarten."

The subcommittee also cut $407,100 that Palin had budgeted for studying the creation of a new early learning program that would be open to all kids regardless of economic background.

According to Meyer, the state contributes about $6.3 million a year to Head Start, and the increase Palin requested would push the total to nearly $7 million.

Palin's spokeswoman couldn't be reached for comment Monday evening.

The budget cuts exasperated Democrats who have pushed for years to increase state funding for Head Start.

"They just took money away from opportunity and success for kids," said Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage.

Gara said he and other lawmakers went to Palin recently and asked her to add money to her budget for Head Start and early learning.

Palin obliged last week by adding the money, and now Meyer's subcommittee has cut it out, he said.

Federal funding for Head Start has been flat and state funding also has remained static for several years as costs have risen, Gara said. Meantime, Head Start classrooms have closed in 19 communities around Alaska, he said.

About 16 foundations, Native organizations and other nonprofits run Head Start programs around the state.

Many studies show Head Start and early learning helps more kids graduate from high school, helps them get better jobs and helps them stay out of jail, Gara said.

Investing in early learning is a better idea for Alaska's huge surplus of oil revenue than pouring dollars into new brick-and-mortar "pork" projects around the state, he said.

But Meyer said he and other lawmakers are trying to do what Palin has asked -- control the growth of state spending. The finance subcommittee on education looked for fat to trim and found some, he said.

Because Head Start isn't a state program, state officials don't have oversight and can't know very well what is being achieved for the money, which local communities could otherwise raise, Meyer said.

The fate of Head Start and early education funding is far from settled. The subcommittee's recommendations now move to the full House Finance Committee, over which Meyer is co-chairman.

Democrats are expected to offer amendments to try to restore the funding.

On a separate track, Gara and other Democrats have introduced House Bill 306 to create a voluntary, statewide early learning program for kids ages 3 and 4.

Find Wesley Loy online at adn.com/contact/wloy or call him in Juneau at 1-907-586-1531.

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