For the third time, some Head Start providers will have to recompete to keep their federal funding as part of the Obama administration’s push to raise the quality of early education.
The list of 103 providers released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spans 37 states and includes 12 organizations in Texas, eight in Louisiana, and eight in Pennsylvania (including the Philadelphia school district).
In 2011, the administration announced new rules that require any provider to compete if it has significant financial or management problems, deficiencies in on-site federal monitoring, or scores in the lowest 10 percent of all programs reviewed in the prior year.
But in the first round at least, this new push resulted in only eight new providers out of 153 agencies selected for Head Start funding, which helps provide early education and family support for more than 1 million children from low-income families. A second round of competition is apparently still ongoing.