Both the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development and the House Education and the Workforce Committee held hearings yesterday on the Head Start program and a recent Government Accountability Office report on grant competition within the program. At each hearing, the issue was raised about the administration's proposed state pilot project, which would allow several states to take over local Head Start centers. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) expressed concern at the Senate subcommittee hearing about whether the proposal would improve academic achievement for children enrolled in Head Start. At the House committee hearing, Chairman John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested that a new approach may be taken that looks at alternatives to contentious issues within the pilot project, including the issue of coordination of state programs.

Many local intergovernmental organizations have come out in support of the Head Start program requesting no major alterations to the program.