[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 84 (Tuesday, May 22, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6420-S6422]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF PROCEDURE

  Mr. CASEY. I ask unanimous consent to be recognized for up to 10 
minutes in morning business and that the Senate recess at 12:40 p.m. 
today.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. CASEY. I thank the Senator from Alabama for his courtesy in 
allowing me this time.
  Madam President, I rise today to focus the attention of the Congress, 
and the attention of the country, upon an issue that is at the heart of 
why I asked the people of Pennsylvania to allow me to serve in the U.S. 
Senate.
  That issue is the well-being of our children and their future.
  When we greet one another in this country we typically say ``Hello'' 
and ``How are you?'' But the standard greeting of the East African 
Masai people is not, ``How are you?'' but, rather, ``How are the 
children?'' This culture embodies the wisdom that the health of any 
civilization is always a reflection of the well-being of its most 
vulnerable citizens--its children.
  I am distressed and alarmed that in response to the question, ``How 
are the children,'' the answer today, here in the richest country on 
Earth, is this: The children, and particularly children from low income 
and working families, are not well. Our children are not

[[Page S6421]]

faring well because 6 years of this administration's budget cuts have 
decimated vital services for children and working families--cuts to 
childcare assistance, Head Start and other early childhood programs 
that help children get off to a good start.
  I am determined to reverse the course this administration has taken 
in slashing funding for critical children's programs and I know that a 
great many of my colleagues--on both sides of the aisle--are equally 
determined. Some of the Presidential candidates have begun talking 
about the importance of early education and I am heartened by the 
increased public attention this will garner. If we don't invest money 
to give children--and particularly the most disadvantaged and at risk 
children--the services and programs they need in early childhood, they 
will be at much greater risk of academic failure, drug abuse and even 
criminal activity when they are older. We can spend upwards of $40,000 
on incarceration, thousands of dollars on drug treatment and special 
education, or we can spend a small fraction of that now on high quality 
preschool and give children the good start they deserve. We can pay now 
or we can pay later. The choice is ours.
  On Friday, May 11, I introduced a bill, the Prepare All Kids Act of 
2007.'' The primary goal of my bill is to help States provide high 
quality prekindergarten programs that will prepare children, and 
particularly disadvantaged children, for a successful transition to 
kindergarten and elementary school. My bill reflects the wisdom that an 
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
  Most States have either begun or are on the way to developing 
prekindergarten programs. In my own State, the new Pennsylvania Pre-K 
Counts initiative will provide approximately 11,000 3- and 4-year-olds 
with voluntary, high-quality prekindergarten that is targeted to reach 
children most at risk of academic failure. But States need our 
financial assistance. My Prepare All Kids Act provides this 
assistance--with conditions and matching commitments from States. 
Grounded in research and best practices, my bill provides a blend of 
State flexibility and high quality standards that will serve children 
well.
  Here is a quick summary of the main components of my bill and why 
they are important for children and families:
  The Prepare All Kids Act will assist States in providing at least 1 
year of high quality prekindergarten to children. Studies show high 
quality prekindergarten programs provide enormous benefits that 
continue into adulthood.
  Prekindergarten will be free for low-income children who need it the 
most. The cost of prekindergarten can be financially draining and even 
prohibitive for low-income and working families.

  Prekindergarten programs will utilize a research-based curriculum 
that supports children's cognitive, social, emotional and physical 
development and individual learning styles. Experts tell us that at the 
preschool stage, social and emotional learning can be as important, 
perhaps even more important, than cognitive learning. This is where 
early socialization takes place--learning to share, pay attention, work 
independently, express feelings--all these are critical to successful 
childhood development.
  Classrooms will have a maximum of 20 children and children-to-teacher 
ratios will be no more than 10 to 1. Children need individualized and 
quality attention to thrive and these requirements provide that.
  Prekindergarten programs will consist of a 6-hour day. This 
requirement supports both children and working parents who need high 
quality programs for their children while they work.
  Prekindergarten teachers will be required to have a bachelor's degree 
at the time they are employed, or obtain one within 6 years. Funding 
under my bill may also be used for professional development purposes by 
teachers.
  States will not be able to divert designated funding for other early 
childhood programs into prekindergarten. We want prekindergarten to 
build upon and support other early childhood programs like Head Start 
and child care. We do not want prekindergarten to replace these 
programs in any way. All these programs are necessary and serve 
different purposes.
  Prekindergarten programs will be accountable to a State monitoring 
plan that will appropriately measure individual program effectiveness.
  Infant and toddler programs will receive a portion of the funding. 
These programs typically receive the lowest dollars of all early 
childhood programs, making it difficult for working parents, many of 
them single mothers, to find quality child care for the youngest of 
children.
  A portion of funding will be used to create extended day and extended 
year programs. Working families struggle to afford high quality care 
for their children during after-school hours and the summer months--
this provision will increase the availability of good options.
  Finally, my bill supports the important role of parents in the 
education of their young children by encouraging parental involvement 
in programs and assisting families in getting the supportive services 
they may need. Children come in families and to truly help children, we 
have to involve and support their parents.
  There is one additional component of my bill that I'd like to 
highlight. My bill ensures that prekindergarten providers will 
collaborate and coordinate with other early childhood providers so that 
prekindergarten programs can support and build upon existing programs 
and services for children. This is a very high priority for me. For 
example, Head Start has provided effective and comprehensive early 
education to the most economically disadvantaged children for the past 
40 years. And community-based childcare providers are absolutely vital 
to the well being of our children. In crafting my bill and establishing 
a new Federal funding source for State prekindergarten programs, I have 
zealously protected the importance of Federal support and funding for 
Head Start and childcare programs. All these programs are necessary for 
a system of early childhood education that truly serves children and 
families by providing families with multiple options, avoiding 
duplication of services, and giving children access to the services and 
support they need to get the best possible start in life.

  I believe that investing in our children is our moral responsibility. 
But for anyone who needs additional reasons, decades of research on the 
life outcomes of children who have attended early education programs 
prove the wisdom of this investment.
  A landmark study of the Perry Preschool Program in Michigan began in 
1962. Children were randomly assigned to attend the preschool or not, 
and then tracked over many years to measure the long-term impact of 
high quality preschool. By age 27, the children excluded from the 
program were five times more likely to have been chronic law-breakers 
than those who attended the program. By age 40, those who did not 
attend the Perry Preschool program were more than twice as likely to be 
arrested for violent crimes. Those who did not attend the Perry 
Preschool Program were also more likely to abuse illegal drugs.
  The research also confirms that high quality prekindergarten programs 
not only keep children out of trouble, they help children succeed 
academically. Children in the Perry Preschool Program were 31 percent 
more likely to graduate from high school than children who did not 
attend the program. Children who were not enrolled in the Perry 
Preschool Program were also twice as likely to be placed in special 
education classes.
  Another long-term study comparing 989 children in the Chicago Child-
Parent Center to 550 similar children who were not in the program 
showed that children who did not participate in the program were 70 
percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18. 
Children who attended the program were 23 percent more likely to 
graduate from high school.
  So we know that high-quality early education is invaluable for 
children. They do better in school, they're less likely to repeat a 
grade or be held back, less likely to need remedial help or special 
education. And they are less likely to engage in delinquency, drug use 
and other dangerous behaviors. But the research shows much more.
  It turns out that these investments in young children save us quite a 
bit of money. Specifically, for every dollar invested, high quality 
early education

[[Page S6422]]

programs save more than $17 in other costs. That is what I call a smart 
investment. Many leading economists agree that funding high-quality 
prekindergarten is among the best investments government can make. An 
analysis by Arthur Rolnick, senior vice president and director of 
research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, showed that the 
return on the investment of the Perry Preschool Program was 16 percent 
after adjusting for inflation. Seventy-five percent of that return went 
to the public in the form of decreased special education expenditures, 
crime costs, and welfare payments.
  To put this in perspective, the long-term average return on U.S. 
stocks is 7 percent after adjusting for inflation. Thus, while an 
initial investment of $1,000 in the stock market is likely to return 
less than $4,000 in 20 years, the same investment in a program like the 
Perry Preschool is likely to return more than $19,000 in the same time 
period. William Gale and Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution 
observe that investing in early childhood education provides government 
and society ``with estimated rates of return that would make a venture 
capitalist envious.''
  With research as clear and compelling as this, I defy anyone to give 
me one good reason why we are not investing more--much more--in sound 
early education for our children.
  I guess we shouldn't be surprised, though, that despite the evidence, 
this administration has gone in the opposite direction. Under this 
administration, cuts to early childhood programs have hurt hundreds of 
thousands of children and the numbers are only growing. Head Start has 
been cut 11 percent since 2002. The National Head Start Association 
calculates that by 2008 our country will have 30,399 fewer children in 
Head Start than in 2007--that figure includes nearly 1,100 children 
from Pennsylvania.
  The President has also called for a freeze in funding for child care 
assistance--for the sixth year in a row. Currently, only 1 in 7 
eligible children receives Federal childcare subsidies. Years of flat 
funding have already resulted in the loss of child care assistance for 
150,000 children. By 2010, 300,000 more children are slated to lose 
out. In my own State, the current trajectory will mean the loss of $14 
million in childcare assistance by 2012.
  This is, very simply, unacceptable. And it is profoundly wrong. And 
it is fiscally irresponsible.
  I began my remarks this morning with the question, ``How are the 
Children?'' The current answer to that question is not acceptable
  It is my deep conviction that as elected public servants, we have a 
sacred responsibility to ensure that all children in this country have 
the opportunity to grow to responsible adulthood, the opportunity to 
realize their fullest potential, to live the lives they were born to 
live. The Protect All Kids Act is a big step in that direction, and I 
ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill. Everything we do 
in Congress has some impact--in one way or another and for good or for 
bad--upon the well being of our children. Our children are our future. 
With everything we do we must ask ourselves, ``How are the children?'' 
We cannot rest until the answer to this most fundamental of questions 
is: The children--all the children--are well.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________