Sixty Years of Head Start

"The bread that is cast upon these waters will surely return many thousandfold. What a sense of achievement, and what great pride, and how happy that will make all of us who love America feel about this undertaking.”

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This is how President Lyndon B. Johnson concluded the speech from the White House Rose Garden 60 years ago in May 1965, officially announcing the establishment of Project Head Start. Its founding was an acknowledgment of how crucial a quality, comprehensive child development program could be for the physical, emotional, and educational health of all children, especially for children growing up in under-resourced and under-served families and communities. Head Start began as an eight-week summer program; it has since served nearly 40 million children and families across the United States. But today, like other basic needs programs millions of children, young people, and families rely on, Head Start has been under attack.