Your front page article “Agency cuts entire Head Start program, affecting 151 students” (July 22) indicated that Head Start leads to academic success.

A Health and Human Services Report published October 2012 showed that “by third grade, the $8 billion Head Start program had little to no impact on cognitive, social-emotional, health, or parenting practices of participants. On a few measures, access to Head Start had harmful effects on children.” (Head Start Impact Evaluation Report Finally Released, By Lindsey Burke and David B. Muhlhausen, Ph.D.)

Consider: “While early formal instruction may appear to show good test results at first, in the long-term, in follow-up studies, such children have had no advantage. On the contrary, especially in the case of boys, subjection to early formal instruction increases their tendency to distance themselves from the goals of schools, and to drop out of it, either mentally or physically,” according to Lilian G. Katz, professor emeritus, University of Illinois.

Maybe the argument could be made that Head Start programs provide at-risk children with a hot breakfast. OK, let’s move the budget for hot breakfasts to a more appropriate program, and examine the data about Head Start a little more critically.

Cynthia Vautier

Bellevue