Head Start is among the handful of federal social programs that is viewed as successful by most Americans. There is growing evidence however that the federal program has less than a stellar track-record in boosting the early education success of its students but those numbers are subject to great debate. What is not subject to debate however is the tragic abuse of the program in Kansas City by its longtime director, one Dwayne Crompton who has headed the program there for 27 years.
Crompton has received salary and bonuses of $814,142 over the past three years - far and away the highest salary of any Head Start official in the country. And at long last, it appears that the Head Start Board is finally putting a halt to this fiasco by recruiting new board members and putting new faces in charge. Part of that move will end with Crompton's retirement, which is expect sooner than later. In fact, he's already announced retirement plans.
Crompton has defended his salary which is nearly three times that of Gov. Bob Holden, by way of comparison. Crompton says he has been rewarded for keeping the agency solvent after a former financial controller was convicted of a $1.1 million kickback scheme about five years ago. That alone should tell you something about the potential for abuse in the program. And wasn't Crompton head of the agency when the kickback scheme was unfolding? Being rewarded for missing that type of criminal action doesn't seem clear justification for the massive salary to me.
Here's what really galls me about this mess. The Head Start board was ordered in October to justify Crompton's pay and make that information available to the federal government. Failure to do so would cost the agency its contract to educate low-income preschoolers. Well the Board made their justification but has yet to release that justification to the public. And we wonder why?
It's understandable why the public is suspicious of government at virtually any level. With examples like this massive abuse, we become suspicious too.