================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 66 ISSN 1069-7799 June 11, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (147 lines) - HOUSE HEAD START REAUTHORIZATION HEARING - U.S. POSTAL SERVICE CLOSES WINGS WEB SITE - GPO ACCESS SELECTED AS ONE OF THE "BEST FEDS ON THE WEB" _________________________________________________________________ HOUSE HEAD START REAUTHORIZATION HEARING The House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families held a June 9 hearing on Head Start Reauthorization. The first panel heard by the subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Frank Riggs (R-CA), was comprised of Reps. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) and John Mica (R-FL). The second panel included a variety of professors, education experts and Head Start administrators. Rep. Sanchez, herself a product of one of the first Head Start programs in the 1960's, said the program was a wonderful experience for her and for her mother -- who subsequently became involved in the school system. Sanchez opposed voucher programs and said Head Start should be expanded to reach all eligible children. She said it was "less expensive to build a child than it is to fix broken adults." Rep. Mica's criticisms of Head Start included the program cost compared to the cost of other programs in his district, the lack of state-certified teachers, the large number of administrators, and the inflexible federal regulations. Mica asked for pilot voucher projects and to block grant the program to local districts. On the second panel, Dr. Carlotta Joyner, director of Education and Employment of the General Accounting Office, testified that Head Start was one of the most successful programs in education and social services. The program has grown from a half billion dollar program in 1990 to a $4 billion dollar program today. Joyner said that the subcommittee should address how the program could better demonstrate progress and results, and how well it is answering the changing needs of society. Dr. Edward Ziegler, an educator dubbed "The Father of Head Start", said those involved have always been concerned about providing a high quality program. He suggested increasing research funds and expanding Head Start to even younger children in light of recent studies on early brain development. Dr. Katherine Snow, who testified in the Senate on the Reading Excellence Act, stressed the importance of developing the necessary skills for children to begin school. Snow said that many children with poor language skills are not read to and come from families with few printed materials available. She said Head Start should include well educated and trained adults. Chairman Riggs remarked that the subcommittee was planning a further field hearing on the Head Start program on June 12. _________________________________________________________________ U.S. POSTAL SERVICE CLOSES WINGS WEB SITE In May the U.S. Postal Service shut down its Web Interactive Network of Government Services, or WINGS, an electronic service launched in July 1996 by the Postal Service in partnership with the city of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and North Carolina state government agencies. The Postal Service was asked to create a user-friendly, widely available electronic access to government services as part of the White House's National Information Superhighway initiative. WINGS, an initiative that was to "enable America to do business with government through a user-friendly, 24-hour Internet-based connection" concluded because the Postal Service "has completed its test of the service," according to a news release. However, the WINGS effort will help the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) launch its Access America conference June 14-17 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. According to the NPR Web site (http://www.npr.gov), Access America is Vice President Gore's 1997 report outlining steps to encourage and increase citizen and business access via the Internet. Twenty-five WINGS information kiosks in Charlotte and Mechlenburg County, NC will still offer city and county government information services. _________________________________________________________________ GPO ACCESS SELECTED AS ONE OF THE "BEST FEDS ON THE WEB" GPO Access, the Government Printing Offices's Web site, has been named one of the "Best Feds on the Web" by Government Executive magazine. Vice President Al Gore, in a letter to Public Printer Michael DiMario, congratulated GPO "for the excellent customer service you are providing through your Web site." According to the judges at Government Executive magazine, "This site provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information published by the government. The site offers government information databases for on-line use, individual federal agency files available for download, tools to assist in finding federal information and user support. Through just this one site, you can access the Federal Register, the Congressional Record, the Commerce Business Daily and many more publications. It doesn't get more convenient than that." The criteria used for the Best Feds was (1) provide excellent customer service to the public by having a well-designed site that includes a large amount of useful information; (2) use the Web to improve business practices in their agencies or across government; and (3) make use of new technologies that other federal sites should consider emulating. GPO Access (http://www.gpo.gov/), one of 15 federal Web sites selected, shared this year's award with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) from the U.S. Department of Education (http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/), the Internal Revenue Service (http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/), Medicare (http://www.medicare.gov/) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (http://www.nasa.gov/). For a list of other award winners, see http://www.govexec.com/virtual/ _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Carol C. Henderson All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================