Congress will Again Consider Head Start; Religious Discrimination Proposal Hurt Legislation in Past

From Education Week:

"The education committees of both the House and the Senate expect to begin work early in the new Congress on a long-awaited reauthorization of the federal Head Start program, which is aimed at preparing disadvantaged preschool children for school.
...the Head Start Act, which was last renewed in 1998 and was due for reauthorization in 2003, has stalled partially because of a provision, included in the House version of the bill at the behest of some conservative Republicans, that would have allowed Head Start centers operated by religious groups to take faith into account in hiring."

The proposal to allow religious groups to discriminate is irrelevant to the purpose of Head Start (providing quality early education) and likely applies in practice to a tiny portion of employers. Luckily, Education Week predicts the discrimination proposal has little chance of being included in this year’s legislation.