After 33 years in existence, there is no hard evidence that the federal Head Start program -- aimed at giving children from poor families an educational boost in their third to fifth years -- has had any impact. Yet it has cost American taxpayers $35 billion and created an army of bureaucrats, critics charge.

Studies show that Head Start helps children for only one or two years, then they score no better on tests than other disadvantaged children. A 1993 Cato Institute report found no evidence that Head Start had a "long-term effect on graduation rates, teen pregnancy, crime or unemployment." Data from the General Accounting Office support this conclusion.

As early as 1985, the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the program, admitted: "In the long run, cognitive and socioemotional test scores of former Head Start students do not remain superior to those of disadvantaged children who did not attend Head Start."

• Since 1965, more than 16 million children have gone through Head Start.

• In the 1990s, its budget has ballooned from $1.5 billion a year to $4.66 billion.

• Last year, the Great Society program had a budget of $4.4 billion to be spent on 830,000 children -- at an average cost per child of $5,186.

• Bureaucrats earning between $40,000 and $80,000 a year administer the program out of 1,400 offices nationwide.

A House committee has passed a $4.66 billion reauthorization for Head Start and a similar bill has already cleared the full Senate. Critics charge that several provisions added to the House bill will expand and transform the program into a national child-care system. The full House is scheduled to take up the legislation in September.