No start with no Head Start? The budget shrinks further...

A recent push toward greater spending cuts, profiled in this story by the New York Times, hits certain education programs hard - namely Head Start, a pre-school-oriented program that provides education and some health care for three and four-year-olds whose families' incomes are low enough to qualify. The article profiles the state of Alaska, which has sustained large enough cuts to Head Start to nearly eliminate the program.

Though pre-school education rarely makes headline news, this recent cut to the system carries drastic implications. Programs like Head Start have had statistical significance in putting kids on the right track from an early age. Children who otherwise would have veered toward street gangs and drug deals have received the right push at the right time. Government initiatives like Head Start are strongly responsible for sending more kids in the United States to college each year. Academic motivation starts early, and it's important to give children in troubled circumstances precisely that - a "head start." Yet, now, according to the new Republican budget plan, programs like these are having to step to the sidelines and children in low-income households fend for themselves more and more.

This growing weakness in subsidized early education makes non-profit programs such as Tutorpedia's SES tutoring even more important as a final effort to give deserving students in dire economic circumstances a critical push in their studies.