I am not surprised at all by this and thought this was worth posting up. We have had friends involved with Head Start and it always seemed there was plenty of 'funding' when other programs that I deemed far more worthy of such funding, were getting cut or closed. We saw kids in head Start that we knew were far from poor or low income. I am not saying that all Head Start programs are in the tank like the ones mentioned in this next article but if there are this many as in this article, we can bet there are many, many more. 2.1 Billion in stimulus funds went to this program. How have the bucks stopped at your local Head Start program? I am not coming out against this program but highlighting a swath of corruption and fraud within it. Don't shoot the messenger, OK? From Examiner.com.
Undercover ops reveal fraud, abuse at Head Start program
By Jim Kouri
The Government Accountability Office substantiated allegations of fraud and abuse involving two Head Start nonprofit grantees in the Midwest and Texas.
The Head Start program provides child development services primarily to low-income families and their children. Federal law allows up to 10 percent of families to have incomes above 130 percent of the poverty line -- GAO refers to them as over-income families. Families with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty line, or that meet certain other criteria, are referred to as under-income families.
Nearly 1 million children a year participate in Head Start, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided an additional $2.1 billion. GAO received hotline tips alleging fraud by grantees. In response, the GAO investigated the allegations, conducted undercover tests to determine if other centers were committing fraud, and documented instances where potentially eligible children were put on Head Start wait lists.
On May 18, 2010 GAO testified before the U.S. Congress on the preliminary results of its ongoing investigation. Since GAO's May testimony, HHS has taken a number of actions to address identified weaknesses, such as implementing a fraud hotline. HHS also indicated that it has moved expeditiously to begin a rule making process to strengthen the regulations on the eligibility verification process.
GAO received allegations of fraud and abuse involving two Head Start nonprofit grantees in the Midwest and Texas. Two of the many allegations were substantiated.
For example, one grantee inappropriately counted time parents spent helping children with homework as contributions to meet program funding requirements. While not fraudulent, investigators found that at both grantees, the average number of students who attended class was significantly lower than the number of students the grantees reported as enrolled in class.
Realizing that the alleged fraud schemes could be perpetrated at other Head Start programs, GAO attempted to register fictitious children as part of 15 undercover test scenarios at centers in six states and the District of Columbia.
In 8 instances staff at these centers fraudulently misrepresented information, including disregarding part of a family's income to register over-income children into under-income slots. The undercover tests revealed that seven Head Start employees lied about applicants' employment status or misrepresented their earnings.
This leaves Head Start at risk that over-income children may be enrolled while legitimate under-income children are put on wait lists. At no point during registrations was information submitted by GAO's fictitious parents verified, leaving the program at risk that dishonest persons could falsify earnings statements and other documents in order to qualify.
In seven instances centers did not manipulate information. (Click here To hear selected video clips of GAO enrollments.)
In addition, GAO found that most of the 550 Head Start centers contacted had waiting lists. GAO also found that two centers where GAO enrolled fictitious children later became full and developed waiting lists after the fictitious children had been withdrawn. Only 44 centers reported that they had openings.
GAO investigators interviewed families on waiting lists from other centers and found that many stated that their incomes were at or below the federal poverty level. In some cases, families stated they had experienced some type of domestic violence, or were receiving some type of public assistance, which made them automatically eligible for Head Start.
Original article is here.
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Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a columnist for The Examiner (examiner.com) and New Media Alliance (thenma.org). In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer and columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc.
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It's about time someone looked into the integrity of Head Start. These schools serve mainly single welfare mothers with three or four children by more than one father. The teachers that are employed by Head Start are also single welfare mothers with a few kids with different dads. The only difference is that the teacher is a GED greaduate who is working on her associate degree in Early Childhood Education Technology at a diploma mill community college. No wonder these children aren't learning anything to prepare them for school.
The program must be investigated
for corruption and fraud. Once
this is done I think they will
find something like an ACORN like
corruption. This will not get much
traction under the rule of Obama
as Head start is a sacred cow to
all liberals and demosocialistacrats.
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