[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 144 (Wednesday, October 15, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2051]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        UNIVERSAL 4-YEAR-OLD KINDERGARTEN TO D.C. AND NATIONWIDE

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 15, 2003

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I am introducing today the Universal Pre-
Kindergarten and Early Childhood Education Act of 2003 (Universal Pre-
K) to begin the process of providing universal, public school pre-
kindergarten education for every child, regardless of income. The bill 
is meant to fill the gaping hole in the President's No Child Left 
Behind law, which requires elementary and secondary school children to 
meet more rigorous standards while ignoring the preschool years which 
can best prepare them to do so. My bill would provide a breakthrough in 
elementary school education by taking a step at the federal level to 
provide initial funding and, using such funding, to encourage school 
districts themselves to add a grade to elementary schooling at age four 
as an option for every child.
  The Universal Pre-K Act responds both to the needs of parents for 
educational childcare and to the new science showing that a child's 
brain development, which sets the stage for lifelong learning, begins 
much earlier than previously believed. However, parents who need child 
care for their pre-K age children are rarely able to afford the 
stimulating educational environment necessary to ensure optimal brain 
development. Universal Pre-K would be a part of school systems, adding 
a new grade for 4-year-olds similar to 5-year-old kindergarten programs 
now routinely available in the United States. The bill would eliminate 
some of the major shortcomings of the uneven commercial day care now 
available and would assure qualified teachers and safe facilities.
  Because of decades of refusal by Congress to approve the large sums 
necessary for universal health coverage, the Universal Pre-K Act 
encourages school districts across the United States to apply to the 
Department of Education for grants to establish 4-year-old 
kindergartens. Grants funded under Title IV of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act (ESEA) would be available to school systems 
which agree in turn to use the experience acquired with the federal 
funding provided by my bill to then move forward, where possible, to 
phase in pre-kindergartens for all children in the school district in 
regular classrooms with teachers equivalent to those in other grades as 
part of their annual school district budgets.
  The success of high quality Head Start and other pre-kindergarten 
programs combined with new scientific evidence concerning the 
importance of brain development in the early years should mandate the 
expansion of early childhood education for all of our children. 
Traditionally, early learning programs have been available only to the 
affluent and to lower income families in programs such as Head Start. 
The goal of the Universal Pre-K Act is to bring the benefits of 
educational pre-K within reach of the great majority of American 
working poor, lower middle class, and middle class families, most of 
whom have been left out.
  In a letter to Congress opposing private school vouchers, City 
Council Member Kathy Patterson suggested that instead of vouchers, 
Congress should fund a number of unfunded D.C. public school 
priorities, including Pre-K education for all 4-year-old children. She 
said that although universal 4-year-old Pre-K was a top D.C. priority, 
the city has been able to provide this schooling to only half of its 
children from local tax revenue.
  Compare the cost of day care, most of it offered today with an 
inadequate educational emphasis, at an average cost of $6,171 per year 
to the cost of in-state tuition at the University of Virginia, which 
costs $6,150 per year. Yet, more than 60 percent of mothers with 
children under age six work. That proportion is rapidly increasing as 
more mothers enter the labor force, including mothers leaving welfare, 
who also have no long term access to child care.
  Considering the staggering cost of daycare, the inaccessibility of 
early education, and the opportunity earlier education offers to 
improve a child's chances in life, four-year-old kindergarten is 
overdue. The absence of viable options for working families demands our 
immediate attention.

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