U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock talks with a young student in a Head Start classroom during a tour Monday of the program at the Economic Opportunity Authority for Savannah. Warnock plans to introduce a bill in September to allow student teachers to work alongside fully credential teachers in Early Head Start classrooms. (Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News)]
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Credit: Savannah Morning News
POLITICS<https://www.ajc.com/politics/>
By Adam Van Brimmer<https://www.ajc.com/staff/adam-van-brimmer/>

SAVANNAH — The little boy hesitated, just for an instant. The friendly stranger with several TV cameras pointing at him had offered to tie his shoe, and a shy moment gripped the toddler.
Then his trepidation passed. The 4-year-old smiled at U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock<https://www.warnock.senate.gov/> and presented his foot.  “Sit on up here,” Warnock said as he lifted him onto a low table. “I got you.”

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock ties a boy’s shoe during his visit Monday to the Savannah Head Start program.                                                                           (Adam Van Brimmer/ adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com)

Warnock went classroom to classroom Monday morning, visiting with preschoolers and their teachers in an education building located a 5-minute walk from where he grew up<https://www.ajc.com/politics/warnock-returns-to-hometown-savannah-to-deliver-closing-campaign-message/EWN6AXGITRH67PPUR534CDAQF4/>. More than a social call, the Democrat chose the Savannah locale to announce legislation meant to create shoe-tying opportunities for more American children by allowing student teachers into Early Head Start classrooms.

For Warnock, the program is personal — he is a Head Start<https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ohs/about/head-start> alum, having attended a similar Savannah-area preschool, known as Early Birds, in the early 1970s. “Here’s the bottom line for me: In one of these classrooms could be your next United States senator from Georgia,” Warnock said. “And I mean that because I was one of them.”

Credit: Adam Van Brimmer/AJC

Warnock intends to file the Early Head Start bill in September. The bipartisan measure, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Mike Braun<https://www.braun.senate.gov/>, R-Ind., would alter Head Start rules to allow students working toward child development associate <https://www.cdacouncil.org/en/> credentials, also known as CDAs, to teach alongside degree-holding educators in the classroom.

Early Head Start, which serves children ages 6 months to 3 years, and Head Start, for children 3 years old to 5 years old, face a chronic workforce shortage nationwide. The dearth of teachers is particularly pronounced in Savannah — the program has funding for 327 children but operates at less than half capacity.

Alycia Brown, the program’s local director, said Savannah Head Start facilities have six empty classrooms — five of those for Early Head Start attendees — and 21 teacher vacancies. The student-to-teacher ratio is 4-to-1 in Early Head Start classes and 10-to-1 in Head Start classes. The proposed Warnock-Braun legislation would give Brown the “flexibility” to pair student teachers with veteran educators and increase the number of classes.

“We have a waitlist, a long one,” Brown said. “We want to be able to serve more students.”

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock greets a Head Start teacher at the Economic Opportunity Authority for Savannah

In one of these classrooms could be your next United States senator from Georgia,” Warnock said. “And I mean that because I was one of them.” (Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News)]

Credit: Savannah Morning News

Warnock characterized his bill as a workforce development initiative. Student teachers working in Head Start would earn a salary, incentivizing more young adults to pursue CDAs and prepare young children, many of them from low-income families, for kindergarten.

Warnock and his 11 siblings were raised in public housing in Savannah. He credits Head Start along with another government-backed education program for youth, Upward Bound, for propelling him to success.

“I know firsthand the difference that these programs make,” Warnock said. “Head Start did for me exactly what the name suggests: It gave a kid growing up in public housing a head start, gave me a path toward academic success and laid the foundation for everything that I’ve done ever since. I’ve never forgotten that.”