This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, March 14, 2011. I'm Caleb Brown.

Head Start is among federal programs slated for cuts if the House GOP gets its way.

Adam Schaefer, education policy analyst at the Cato Institute says Head Start truly fails

to provide children a head start and should be a clear candidate for spending cuts.

The Republican budget slightly reduces spending on Head Start from current levels levels about a billion dollar reduction and

about two billion from what President Obama wants to spend on the program and

you know really they should be cutting more because the latest study from the government on the program shows that

it's completely ineffective long term.

It has a year or two of impact on student performance and it fades out completely. So it's an

ineffective program we're spending billions of dollars on, billions of dollars

we don't have. It's absolutely ripe for getting rid of.

Now when you talk about impact of the program

lasting for a couple of years, what does that mean?

Sure, yeah.

Kids are in the program and they get some temporary increase in their academic achievement while they're in the program and a tiny bit for a year or so after that program ends.

But we see it fades out very quickly.

And after a few years, other studies have shown this too,

there's no measurable difference between kids who have been in Head Start

and who have not been in Head Start.

In other words, it doesn't do anything for them.

It's just a temporary blip.

Maybe it's because they're actually doing tests

...