[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 132 (Wednesday, September 24, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H8893-H8894]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE UNDERFUNDING OF HEAD START

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak this 
evening on a very important topic, the Head Start Program.
  During the August recess, I had three opportunities to visit with 
Head Start workers at the Dane County Parent Council, a nonprofit 
agency that runs 13 Head Start sites. What I learned during those 
visits shocked and worried me, and I believe it will shock you also.
  Thirty percent of these Dane County, Wisconsin, Head Start workers 
have faced or experienced an eviction from their housing. Fifty-five 
percent have had phones or other utilities shut off. Forty-five percent 
have used a food bank. Sixty-two percent make so little money that 
their own children are Head Start-eligible.
  These figures are stunning. Head Start is a program designed to break 
the cycle of poverty. Instead, it has become a program that guarantees 
poverty to some of its front-line workers.
  Workers and the management at the Dane County Parent Council are 
currently engaged in tense contract negotiations. Their most recent 
contract expired last night. At the center of these contentious 
negotiations are the extremely low salaries paid to these front-line 
Head Start workers.
  So why do these Head Start workers put up with low wages and face the 
daily challenges that accompany poverty and near poverty? Because they 
are dedicated to the Head Start Program and the good that it does for 
so many children and families, oftentimes their own families.
  One woman recounted for me how her own son had been a Head Start 
student. As a child, he had delayed speech development, but today he is 
a 15-year-old honor roll student. His mother, now a Head Start worker 
herself, knows firsthand of the good that the Head Start Program does. 
So despite the low wages and challenges that she faces in making sure 
her family's basic needs get met, she remains committed to being a part 
of Head Start.
  This level of commitment is admirable, and it is the sort of 
commitment that we as Members of Congress should show to the Head Start 
Program as well.
  I was sad to report to these struggling Head Start workers that the 
House-passed Head Start bill is not going to help their situation. In 
fact, the House-passed bill gives Head Start teachers a meager 0.4 
percent raise. This is insulting, not to mention unconscionable. This 
is not going to help the workers that I met with who are constantly 
faced with the challenge of making ends meet. For these families the 
ends do not meet. They do not even come close.
  In Congress we pass bills that authorize a lot of spending. Our 
appropriation bills authorize billions upon billions of dollars. But I 
urge my colleagues to stop for a moment and remember that it would take 
just a small amount of money, a drop in the bucket really, to do right 
by these devoted workers who do so much to bring hope to the next 
generation of youngsters.

[[Page H8894]]

  A teacher's assistant or a bus driver should be focused on their 
precious students, not how they are going to keep the electricity on at 
home or clothe a growing child or stave off an army of bill collectors.
  I remain hopeful that our colleagues in the other body will reward 
the dedication of Head Start teachers by adequately funding the Head 
Start Program. I also remain hopeful that the Dane County Parent 
Council will recognize the value of their workers through expeditious 
resolution of the remaining economic and noneconomic disputes in their 
contract.

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