Head Start penalizes stay-home parents

OPINION:

Part of the trouble of Head Start, aside from the defective outcomes it produces, is its pollicization, i.e., making grantee management paid foot soldiers of congressional elections and candidates (“Biden’s $390B universal preschool plan based on troubled Head Start program,” Web, Nov. 15). That tie could be cut by giving preschool vouchers to parents directly, empowering them to be involved in the education of their children and disarming the grantee community of routine continuity of funding.

Aside from its questionable benefits, Head Start programming facilitates the delegation of child rearing away from parents, which contributes to the dissolution of the family. This makes two-income and single-parent families more viable. There are pluses and minuses to this condition, and these ought not be disregarded. Income support may need a separate program instead of one that penalizes children of direct parental care.

JAIME L. MANZANO

Ardsley, N.Y.