March 28, 2010; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | We don’t think so, at least not from what we see in this article. Apparently there are some conservative groups in Georgia who are outraged at wage increases of “as much as” 8.5% for Head Start workers after the network received a few waves of funding last year including some stimulus funding. The money was designated to be used for a combination of things including capital improvements, as well as wage increases and training for staff. We covered the money flowing into that network in detail in the
Summer 2009 edition of the Nonprofit Quarterly as part of the story we did on the Badlands Head Start Early Head Start. That money simply filled a gap that had opened up when the network was being starved. The Bush Administration was no fan of Head Start and the network had gone eight years prior to this money being freed up with no contract increases. We would imagine that increases for staff are long overdue and these do not seem outrageous in context.—Ruth McCambridge