In case you missed it: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius issued a strong defense of Head Start in yesterday's issue of USA Today. Her letter was in response to an editorial by the paper urging the administration to "fix Head Start before throwing more money at it." 

She writes: "The Obama administration agrees, and Head Start is an essential part of our broader early learning agenda to put America's most vulnerable children on a path to opportunity. What your editorial missed is that this new investment is coming with some serious new reforms to address the very problems the editorial identified.

And here's the main point: Denying federal funding would only serve to hurt 60,000 poor children and hamper our efforts to keep improving what is already a vastly improved program.

See the Secretary's letter here and our blog about the original editorial and response here.