Head Start Director Visits Santa Ana : Education: Bush appointee praises Grand Avenue school, promises that project for low-income children will continue to receive support from Washington.

To the 4-year-old children, the man who stepped into their Head Start classroom here on Wednesday was not a VIP. He was just a friendly, smiling man with an interesting necktie.

As the classroom guest knelt down on one knee to talk to the children, one little girl held his necktie and marveled at all the dots.

The visitor from Washington was Dr. Wade Frederick Horn, the head of all the Head Start programs in the nation. He was making a whirlwind visit to Orange County to speak to local Head Start officials and deliver a speech at UC Irvine.

But Horn, 38, said a highlight of his trip was getting to visit the children and staff of the Head Start school at 1735 N. Grand Ave., which is operated by the Council of Affiliated Negro Organizations.

“This is a terrific school,” he said. “I always like to visit Head Start schools, because Head Start is a social program that works,” he said. “And I like being around children. I have two children of my own. Also, I’m a child psychologist.”

Horn’s official title is commissioner of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families in the Office of Human Development Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He was named to that office in 1989 by President Bush. Head Start is one of many programs Horn supervises, but it is a focal one because President Bush has emphasized funding for the preschool program for children from low-income families.

“Head Start has received very strong backing from President Bush,” Horn said. “The funding for Head Start was $1.2 billion in 1989, and it’s gone up to $2.8 billion this year.”

In an interview, Horn predicted that Head Start will continue to enjoy strong backing during the Bill Clinton Administration. “I wish I could be around to see the program continue to grow, but I know it’s going to have strong support,” Horn said. “This is a program that started in 1965, under a Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson, and it’s had very strong bipartisan support.”

Head Start is based on the idea of giving poverty-level children a running start for doing well in school.

“Head Start is a comprehensive child-development program for children from low-income families,” Horn said. “It’s designed to help children in their current environment, and also to succeed in their future environment. . . . In order to do that well, it’s necessary to work with the families. We really have to work to strengthen the families of the children, and that’s really what Head Start has been doing for 26 years, and that’s one of the reasons for its success. It recognizes the importance of families, and it empowers them in a way that I think is unique for social programs.”

Horn said the Council of Affiliated Negro Organizations Head Start school is a good example of the program’s success. The organization started its first Head Start school 26 years ago with only 30 students. Today there are 202 children in the Santa Ana school, and they represent the Orange County ethnic spectrum: Anglos, Latinos, blacks and Asian-Americans.

The children at the Santa Ana Head Start are mainly 4-year-olds, although a few are 3. They come from a wide assortment of families, having but one thing in common: very low income.

Alta Manning, the director of the school, said there is no cost to the parents because the federal government subsidizes the program. She said that in addition to living and learning skills, the children get a wide range of free health care.

“We provide dental care, physical examinations, immunizations and nutritional advice,” Manning said. “If the child has some type of a psychological problem, we have a psychologist who comes in for a visit. All of the components are here.”

Horn said the school is a good example of the hundreds of other Head Start programs throughout the nation. And he said the results of the past 26 years clearly show the program is working. He said there is overwhelming evidence that poor children overcome their environmental handicaps and do well in regular school in later years after having been exposed to Head Start.