Head Start

The federal Head Start program has enjoyed solid bipartisan support for years. Legislators recognized that its education, health and social services have a proven benefit in helping disadvantaged children succeed at school. The downside is pretty much nil. Congress has doubled Head Start's funding over the last six years, and last month bills were introduced to make some long-overdue improvements to the 33-year-old program.

The subject of the morning class was criminal investigation, and there was no hesitation on the part of the 17-year-old when he was asked to stand and explain aggravated assault. The boy related the story of how his father, estranged from his mother, had shown up at the house and begun pushing her around. He told of how police had come and explained to his mother the steps she would need to take to obtain a restraining order. School was in session at the Los Angeles Police Department's Ahmanson Training Center in Westchester as high school seniors dressed in brown khaki trousers and blue uniform shirts kicked off another day in an unusual law enforcement training program called the Police Orientation Preparation Program.

Irvine Unified School District is accepting applications for its Head Start program for the 1997-98 school year. The program is free to low-income families who meet federal guidelines. Children who are 4 now or will have had their fourth birthday by Dec. 31 are eligible. The program will accommodate children with special needs. For information, call (714) 786-5221.

UCLA opened spring football practice Tuesday under unusual circumstances. Unusual and pleasant circumstances. For the first time in years, there is no quibbling about who will man the quarterback position. This is Brett Hundley's team, as it was in the fall last year. Life won't get much easier for Coach Jim Mora as far as that goes. "Last year, it was so unsettled," Mora said, referring to last spring. "We were trying to put the pieces together, decide who we were going to be offensively and what we were capable of doing.

Its chutzpah is the only thing admirable in the Bush administration's efforts to alter Head Start, arguably the most popular legacy of Lyndon Baines Johnson's war on poverty. The administration says its changes -- turning over program management to some states, requiring teachers to hold associate's degrees and subjecting children to standardized tests -- would combat "the soft bigotry of low expectations."

Head Start, the federally funded, free preschool program, is looking for families with 3- and 4-year-old children to apply. Low-income children and 4-year-olds receive top priority, but there are spaces for children with special needs, such as cerebral palsy or speech difficulties, even if their families have higher incomes, according to spokeswoman Laurie Dickinson. Nearly 1,000 children are served at the 16 centers and six home-based groups in Ventura County, she said.

The Clinton administration, struggling to bring the nation's premier early education program for poor children into a new age of welfare reform, took new steps Tuesday to encourage those running Head Start programs to offer full-time, year-round services.

Two weeks after denying a preschool program permission to operate in Olive Avenue Park because of residents' opposition, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved Recreation Park as the school's site. The federally funded program, Head Start, serves children in low-income families, abused or neglected children, and those with handicaps. The Community Services Commission voted 4 to 2 last week to approve Head Start's move to Recreation Park, on Mountain Avenue.

Head Start, a federally funded preschool program, is accepting applications for classes this fall. The program will serve more than 1,000 preschoolers from income-eligible families throughout Ventura County. Applications are available at the office of Child Development Resources of Ventura County in Ventura, which offers the federal program locally. Parents are encouraged to apply soon, as early selection is available and registration for the 2000-2001 school year is already underway.

The nation's preschool program for poor children is susceptible to waste and bad service by local centers because of weak federal oversight, a congressional audit says. The review by the Government Accountability Office depicts federal management of Head Start as disjointed and inconsistent, allowing financial problems to go unchecked or unfixed.

Los Angeles Times To the preschoolers at the Good Beginnings Child Care Center, the giant crayons and blunt scissors were utensils to help them make paper crowns. But to the instructors of the Pico Union center, the tools were helping the 3- and 4-year-olds develop fine motor skills and object recognition. The center is one of hundreds in Los Angeles County funded in large part by Head Start, a federal program that provides early childhood education, nutrition and health services to low-income families.

After he was done serving himself seconds, Fernando Godenez turned left to his classmate and extended his arms out, holding the bowl of meatballs and marinara in one hand, a serving spoon in the other. " Quieres ?" the 3-year-old asked in Spanish, the physical effort a monument to his improving motor skills, a sign that he's becoming more comfortable with other kids. "In his way, he's communicating, he's coming out of his shell," said Rashmi Kothari, one of Fernando's teachers.

For some bargain-hunters, Black Friday just isn't early enough. Around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, about 40 people stood outside Target at the Glendale Galleria, the line snaking onto Colorado Street. Honey Manuel of Silverlake was first in line, having been there since 2:30 p.m. "What I am doing now is an adventure," Manuel said as a band of teenagers stood nearby grooving to music playing from a phone inside the jacket pocket of their long- haired friend. PHOTOS: Black Friday shoppers hunt for deals In what is becoming something of a Thanksgiving tradition for retailers, businesses lured shoppers with Christmas sales several hours before the clock struck midnight Thursday, not long after some families cleared their tables of turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie. Across Southern California, shoppers were lining up for door-buster bargains, Black Friday deals and a shot at some of the most sought after gifts of the season.

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney is now out-raising President Obama's campaign money machine, the most prodigious in history. But nervousness has crept into Republican ranks because the unofficial nominee hasn't fully defined himself in voters' minds - something the president has been eager to do for him. Obama's attacks on Romney's personal wealth and his work as a private-equity specialist are hurting the GOP candidate, say strategists in both parties....

TAMPA, Fla. - No state is more crucial to Mitt Romney's chances of winning the White House than Florida, and no issue here is more important than the economy. That dynamic played out recently when Vice President Joe Biden came to the perennial electoral vote battleground to promote the Obama administration's environmental record by riding an airboat through the Everglades. The Romney camp responded with a stinging assault on President Obama's "failed" economic policies. The targets: a Florida jobless rate that exceeds the national average, painfully high gasoline prices, rising healthcare costs and one of the worst housing collapses in the country.

At the beginning of her fourth marathon Sunday, 20-year-old Fatuma Sado liked the weather, which was nicer than expected, and her pace, which wouldn't be matched. The Ethiopia native dominated the 27th annual L.A. Marathon, posting a winning time of 2 hours 25 minutes 39 seconds, the fourth-fastest finish in race history and more than two minutes ahead of her personal record. "I am successful running marathons because I train with elite Ethiopian marathoners," she said through an interpreter after earning her second marathon win, following her debut win in Hamburg, Germany, last May. Sado crossed the finish line ahead of Simon Njoroge, the 31-year-old Kenyan who won the men's race in 2:12:12, his seventh marathon win and sixth in his last nine.

Directors of a federally funded Head Start program for low-income children learned this week that their lease for space on public school property will not be renewed for next year, officials said. The notification, in a letter that officials received Monday from the Orange Unified School District, was a surprise, said Sue Ko, executive director of Head Start at Lampson Elementary School in Garden Grove.

Acknowledging a need to keep up with an expanding clientele, a zoning administrator approved Friday a new 2,130-square-foot portable classroom at a Head Start child care facility in North Hollywood. At a public hearing held at the Sherman Oaks Woman's Club, there was no opposition to Volunteers of America's application to add the classroom to its campus at 7625 Lankershim Blvd. "We're just planning for the high need in the area," said Sima D.

At a Pomona preschool recently, children played with a large wooden train set, built a fort with colorful cardboard blocks and listened attentively as their teacher discussed ways to be safe in school and outdoors. It was a typical day, but the program at Harrison Elementary School and many others like it are facing atypical times, because the agency that manages these Head Start contracts may lose its $220-million federal grant. The Los Angeles County Office of Education was included among more than 130 agencies around the country that did not meet federal performance standards and will now have to compete with other potential providers to receive funding.

President Obama continued his "we can't wait" campaign against Congress on Tuesday morning, this time targeting lawmakers' failure to act on education issues by issuing executive changes governing the Head Start program. After touring classrooms at a Head Start center near Philadelphia, Obama said he is ordering regular evaluations of the early childhood education program against a set of "clear, high standards. " "After trying for months to work with Congress on education, we've decided to take matters into our own hands," Obama said.