The Bush administration must increase funding for Head Start and Early Head Start programs if it is serious about not leaving any child behind.

Since 2002, the program has suffered from a combination of inflation and a steady decline in federal funding, effectively reducing money for Head Start programs by 13 percent.

President Bush's current budget proposal does not include the necessary increase of $100 million that Congress, as part of a continuing resolution for fiscal year 2007, made for Head Start and Early Head Start programs. This amounts to an effective cut to Head Start by the Bush administration.

Head Start, a public preschool for poor children, was one of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty programs.

It currently serves 1 million U.S. children. In addition to an educational curriculum, it provides balanced nutrition, medical and dental screening and social services. It also requires parental involvement. This comprehensive, whole-child approach is valuable.

Studies by Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, show that children who participate in Head Start programs — and other high-quality care programs — have higher academic achievement and fewer behavioral and emotional problems, regardless of family income and background. They are also more likely to graduate from high school and attend college.

What's more, intensive preschool programs for at-risk children have been associated down the road with lower crime rates, reduced teenage pregnancy and improvements in overall health.

Head Start provides good, quality day care for low-income parents. But it is especially essential for single parents who need the availability of affordable and reliable child care in order to participate in the workforce.

The astronomical cost of child care is one of the most pressing issues they face. Annual child care costs for a 4-year-old range from a low of $3,016 in Alabama to a high of $8,530 in New York, according to a 2006 study conducted by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. This survey includes all child-care programs, even those that do not meet minimal levels of quality. Accredited centers, on average, cost $5,000 more.

Quality child care is prohibitive for low-income parents. Adults who work full time at the proposed increased minimum wage of $7.25 an hour would earn $15,080 a year. Even in states like Mississippi, where child care is relatively less expensive, child care fees consume 27 percent of the median income of single-parent families. In more expensive areas of the country, child-care costs would eat up more than 50 percent of a minimum-wage salary.

Unfortunately, over the past 10 years, so-called welfare reform has impelled single mothers to enter the workforce with little to no consideration of their day-care needs.

We should be spending more on Head Start, not less. But because of cutbacks, more than half of Head Start programs around the country have been forced to reduce health and education services for children, according to a survey by the National Head Start Association. As a result, programs across the country have laid off staff, eliminated services for children and families, and shortened hours of operation.

As a nation, we should strive not to warehouse children but to make safe, quality care available for all children. Head Start has been a model in this regard. Investing in our children means investing in our future. Adequate funding for Head Start is a step in the right direction.

Premilla Nadasen is associate professor of history at Queens College. She wrote this commentary for Progressive Media Project, affiliated with The Progressive magazine.

We should be spending more on Head Start, not less. But because of cutbacks, more than half of Head Start programs around the country have been forced to reduce health and education services for children...