Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994                   TAG: 9406270130
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HEAD START

Or, rather, would be great news, if the funds are actually appropriated.

To be precise, the legislation could add as much as $700 million to federal Head Start funding. Congress members made a big show of their concern for disadvantaged children and their awareness of Head Start's cost-effectiveness. The vote to authorize the program's expansion was 393 to 20 in the House, 98 to 2 in the Senate.

But the votes were just that, a show. Given various budget caps, spending restraints and competition for funds, Head Start is unlikely to get more than a fraction of the extra authorization.

Congress does have its priorities. Some $270 billion will be spent next year on the military, to protect a nation whose citizens live in far greater fear of crime than of invasion.

Head Start is cheaper than paying for special-education classes, which is where many at-risk children end up if they are denied programs to prevent learning difficulties. In the Roanoke Valley, special-needs children will cost taxpayers about $35 million in the next five years.

Head Start is also cheaper than paying $20,000 or $30,000 a year to incarcerate someone - but the notion of investing now in early-childhood education to avoid bigger expenses down the road isn't exactly dripping with demagogic appeal.

Prisons, on the other hand, hold lots of this appeal. Though America's inmate population already has doubled in the past decade, Congress seems intent on adding another $15 billion to the prison-building boom. But that should come as no surprise.

After all, at the rate we're going, plenty of today's kids will grow up to fill the new prisons one day.