Other states have followed suit, and late in 1990, Congress augmented its
funding for Project Head Start by $500 million dollars, to provide more
programs of a similar nature throughout the country for the children of the
poor, many of whom are language minorities. Head Start is a benevolent
program in that its main objective is to give poor children some of the background
experiences and skills needed for school, including English, before
they get there. For language-minority children, any program that emphasizes
English at the expense of the primary language is a potential disaster,
however. And therein lies the problem that this article addresses.