EDITORIAL: Will local Head Start grant actually make a difference?

Rep. Dina Titus this week announced that Sunrise Children’s Foundation had secured a $3.6 million grant to expand early education efforts for local children.

The grant, through the federal Administration for Children and Families, will cover the cost of toddler learning programs for 200 low-income children, ages 6 weeks through 3 years. It’s part of the Early Head Start program.

“By providing more access to resources for our children and educators,” Rep. Titus said in a statement, “this grant makes a valuable long-term investment for our community.”

Let’s hope so. Because in real terms, Head Start “investments” have woefully underperformed.

The Head Start program, intended to ensure that poor children have the basic skills necessary to succeed in school, began as part of LBJ’s “Great Society” in the 1960s. Since then, taxpayers have spent more than $180 billion on the initiative — current spending is about $7 billion a year. Yet like many education expenditures — class-size reduction comes to mind — there’s scant evidence that the results merit the massive costs.

Even the federal government’s own studies have failed to document the claims made by Head Start supporters. The most comprehensive and scientifically rigorous study of the program, issued in 2010, concluded that while Head Start “had ‘potentially positive effects’ on general reading achievement” the program generated “no ‘discernible effects’ on mathematical achievement and social-emotional development for 3-year-old and 4-year-old children,” U.S. News and World Report noted.

That’s an awfully small gain for the money involved.

Don’t expect Head Start to be on the chopping block. Its mission remains admirable and the program has a large political constituency — and when it comes to government programs, those attributes matter far more than real-world results. But let’s hope the Las Vegas-area kids who take advantage of the new $3.6 million grant can buck the trend.