Sara Mead over at Education Sector and one of the "team" of bloggers behind The Quick and the Ed, the companion blog to Eduwonk, tells me my post from last night on cuts in the Head Start budget failed to detect the self-interests of the National Head Start Association. I guess I've been out of the newsroom too long. I relied on a press release from the organization that claimed that the president's budget cuts $100 million from Head Start. Mead points out that, actually, the Head Start budget was level funded at $6.8 billion, the same as in 2007. Here's the actual budget numbers. Sara says that NHSA, like a lot of special interests, "always talks about level-funding of Head Start (and even increases below baseline) as a 'cut' or a 'cut in real terms' because it doesn't include increases for inflation...Obviously there are legitimate arguments to be made there about how a lack of spending increase leads to reductions in services, but simply calling level-funding a cut without further explanation confuses people and assumes a perpetually growing government budget."

She notes, rightly, that "it's important for people who disagree to make the case as accurately as possible." It's also important for bloggers to check out such claims. (I stand by my statement that it would be worthwhile for journalists to look at how Head Start is being affected by the growth of state pre-kindergarten programs.)