[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 92 Introduced in House (IH)]
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 92
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Project Head Start.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 5, 2015
Ms. Jackson Lee (for herself, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Levin, Mr. McDermott,
Mr. Meeks, Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California, Ms. Bordallo, Mrs.
Kirkpatrick, Mr. Vela, Mr. Caardenas, Ms. Norton, Mr. Johnson of
Georgia, Ms. Fudge, Mr. Hastings, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Serrano,
Mr. Cartwright, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Conyers, Mr.
Cohen, Ms. Brown of Florida, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Himes, Mr. Ellison, Ms.
Adams, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Mr.
Engel, Ms. Wilson of Florida, Ms. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico,
Mr. Carson of Indiana, Ms. Titus, Mrs. Bustos, Mr. Sablan, Ms. Hahn,
Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Plaskett, Ms. Sewell of Alabama, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr.
Costa, Mr. Fattah, Ms. Matsui, Mrs. Lowey, Mr. Crowley, Ms. McCollum,
Mr. Sires, Mr. Ryan of Ohio, Ms. Lee, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms.
Slaughter, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Perlmutter, Mr. Pascrell, Mr. Higgins, Mr.
Nolan, Ms. Tsongas, Ms. Kaptur, Ms. Bass, Mr. Loebsack, Mr. Kilmer, Mr.
Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. Lofgren, Ms. Brownley of California, Mr.
Lieu of California, Mr. Richmond, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, and Mr.
Peters) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and the Workforce
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Project Head Start.
Whereas May 18, 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of Head Start, originally
established as Project Head Start which was one of the signal
achievements of the Great Society and one of the boldest initiatives
launched by the Nation in the War on Poverty;
Whereas the aim of Project Head Start, as launched in 1965 in the White House
Rose Garden by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, was bold in its scope
and design;
Whereas in announcing the opening of a new front in the War on Poverty with the
launch of Project Head Start, President Johnson stated that ``We set out
to make certain that poverty's children would not be forevermore
poverty's captives.'';
Whereas Project Head Start was conceived as an 8-week summer program designed to
provide preschool training not just to prepare 5- and 6-year-olds to
enter regular school the following September, but also to give nearly
half the preschool children living in poverty ``a head start on their
future'';
Whereas when launched in 1965 Project Head Start, administered by the Office of
Economic Opportunity and wonderfully and skillfully led by its Director,
Sargent Shriver, consisted of 2,500 projects covering 11,000 child
development centers and serving about 530,000 poor children in every
State of the Union;
Whereas Project Head Start was launched not as a mere demonstration project
limited to a handful of counties, but as a program national in scope
serving every city, suburb, and rural area in the United States because
President Johnson recognized that the bleak future waiting for children
trapped in poverty was not a phenomenon concentrated in the inner-cities
of the large urban cities of the North but could be found in every
region in every State in the Nation;
Whereas in addition to providing pre-school training to prepare poor children to
enter regular school and help put them on an even footing with their
classmates as they enter school, Project Head Start sought to help
children prepare for the challenges they will face in life and to combat
poverty's great weapons--hunger and malnutrition, illness and poor
health, ignorance, and cultural deprivation;
Whereas Project Head Start was from the start a national undertaking, utilizing
the services of 41,000 professionals, including teachers, doctors,
dentists, nurses, and nutritionists, employing more than 47,000 persons
who were assisted by more than 500,000 volunteers;
Whereas based on its initial 1965 success as a summer program, the following
year, Project Head Start was funded as a primarily part-day, 9-month
program, largely implemented through existing community action programs;
Whereas in 1969 the administration of the program was vested in the newly
created Office of Child Development in what was then the Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare, the predecessor of the Department of
Health and Human Services;
Whereas in 1975 Head Start was established by Public Law 93-644;
Whereas in subsequent years, Head Start programs would be expanded to serve
children with disabilities, Native Americans, and homeless children and
to provide bilingual and bi-cultural migrant and seasonal programs
serving 6,000 children in 21 States;
Whereas today Head Start programs serve nearly 1,000,000 poor children,
including 136,120 children with disabilities, 15,632 pregnant women, and
provide services to 771,840 families;
Whereas not only have Head Start programs been a great benefit to their direct
beneficiaries, they have also provided substantial economic and social
benefits to the Nation as a whole, yielding a rate of return on
investment (ROI) of 7-9 percent and the direct creation of 236,591 jobs
paying an average annual salary of about $31,000 for Head Start teachers
with baccalaureate degrees;
Whereas according to a report published in 2004, ``Fight Crime: Invest In
Kids'', Head Start programs benefit society at large by reducing crime
and its costs to crime victims because Head Start children are
significantly less likely to have been charged with a crime than their
siblings who did not participate in a Head Start program;
Whereas another societal benefit of Head Start programs is the improved health
of the children and families they serve, evidenced by mortality rates
for 5- to 9-year-old children that are 33 to 50 percent lower than the
rates for comparable children not enrolled in a Head Start program;
Whereas Head Start children are less likely to fall victim to childhood obesity,
and are at least 8 percent more likely to have had their immunizations,
than children who did not attend preschool;
Whereas Head Start children also are less likely to exhibit problem behavior,
and studies have found that parents who participated in Head Start
programs have greater quality of life satisfaction, increased confidence
in coping skills, and decreased feelings of anxiety, depression, and
sickness;
Whereas Head Start programs have been an unqualified success for the more than
31,000,000 children and parents they have served since the inception of
Project Head Start in 1965;
Whereas the record of the Head Start programs validates President Johnson's
assertion that Head Start was and is ``one of the most constructive, and
one of the most sensible, and also one of the most exciting programs
that this Nation has ever undertaken''; and
Whereas the reward reaped by the Nation for this bold action is the collective
service and contributions to the betterment of society made by the
31,000,000 children who have been served by Head Start programs over the
past 50 years: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes and honors the 50th anniversary of Project
Head Start;
(2) applauds President Lyndon Baines Johnson, all persons
whose support and efforts led to the creation of Project Head
Start in 1965, and the Head Start record of success over the
ensuing half century; and
(3) encourages all Americans to recognize and celebrate the
important historical milestone of the creation of Head Start.
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