[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 10 (Friday, January 16, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S647-S648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      EDUCATION BEGINS AT HOME ACT

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, our families are struggling in the worst 
economy since the Great Depression. It is a difficult time for many who 
do not have jobs or who have seen their savings shrink or are in danger 
of losing their homes. We are working very hard on many fronts to try 
to get the economy going again.
  During this time, I think it is important we not lose sight of our 
long-term priorities. We have to build a better safety net for our 
children and families. We must think about the long-term educational 
prospects and tools for success our children need, regardless of the 
economy.
  Today, I highlight two bills that address educational needs of 
children.
  First, research tells us that the first months and years of life are 
critical in laying the foundation for later success in school and 
social interaction. As a matter of fact, some people say that half of a 
child's learning intelligence is developed by 3 years old. For too 
long, we have thought those wonderful little people under 3 were just 
to be loved and ignored in terms of education. Much of the time is 
spent in the home, and parents are the most influential part of a 
child's life. It is my view that they must be the child's best first 
teacher. During these early moments, with the parents and other family 
members, children establish their social, emotional and intellectual 
health that will continue to grow throughout their lives. Enhancing 
these early critical moments further enhances the later years of a 
child's education.

  You know, the key to education is exciting their curiosity. If you 
can make a child curious, then you can begin to teach them because you 
can respond to what their curiosity seeks. I think it makes sense to 
equip the parents with the skills they need to help maximize the 
child's health and development. This is exactly what a program that I 
have worked on in Missouri does. It is called Parents as Teachers--or 
PAT--and that is precisely what it focuses on. It focuses on primarily 
those first 3 years of life, when half the learning intelligence, when 
the socialization and interaction are developing, and when the 
curiosity is excited.
  The curriculum of PAT is designed to build a foundation for later 
learning, to provide early detection of developmental delays, as well 
as health, vision, and hearing problems, to prevent child abuse and 
neglect and to increase a child's school readiness and success.
  Actually, we found that detecting those early childhood developmental 
delays probably saves more money in avoiding special education or 
remedial education needs later on. The way we finally got the bill 
passed in the Missouri General Assembly was when a commission I had set 
up as Governor studied ways to lessen child abuse. They came back and 
said: You know, the best thing you can do is to equip a parent with the 
tools to deal with a child's frustration and keep them from pushing you 
to the point where you are abusive.
  My Bond theorem is that if you have a 2-year-old child and that child 
isn't driving you nuts on a regular basis, either, A, you are not 
normal or, B, the child is not normal. Parents as Teachers gives the 
parent a means of dealing with those frustrating and challenging times.
  Twenty-five years ago, I pushed the Early Childhood Education Act 
through the Missouri General Assembly and signed it into law. It was my 
second term and I had to fight for 4 years to get the bill passed, but 
it mandates that Parents as Teachers be offered in every school 
district in the State. In other words, to every family; whether they 
were going to home school their children, whether they had their 
children at parochial or private school or in a public school.
  That was 4 long years of work, and I don't know that I have ever had 
a more satisfying 4-year-long battle with that success. I was on a 
mission because the year I started pushing it was the year my son was 
born. I was anxious to be a new father and shared the same feelings of 
anxiety and confusion many new parents still feel today. I had bought a 
new car before my son arrived, and it came with a handbook. We took Sam 
home from the hospital, and they told us to use a car seat and gave us 
diapers. Well, children's schooling is a key component of a child's 
success in school, and that is why we began working on it.
  PAT made a positive difference in my family, through sleepless 
nights, teething, and learning the ABCs. My son was probably one of the 
first to benefit from the Parents as Teachers materials and books, but 
countless others have benefited since. And after I passed it, I found 
that parents would stop me on the street or in my office and say: You 
would not believe what I learned when the parent educator came to visit 
us. Every time it was something new and different and it gave the 
parents a feeling of power that they could deal with the opportunities 
this new child gave them.
  What began as an experiment in Missouri has expanded to more than 
3,000 sites in all 50 States and 8 foreign countries. Countries all 
over the world are investing in PAT because the results are positive 
and the cost is low. We have about 150,000 Missouri families--200,000 
children--participating in

[[Page S648]]

PAT now. I have had the anecdotal results, but scientifically we have 
determined, through sound research, that at age 3, PAT children are 
more advanced in language, social development, problem solving, and 
other cognitive abilities than their peers; and parents who participate 
in PAT are more confident about their parenting and more involved in 
the children's schooling, which is a key component of a child's success 
in school.
  I can tell you also that when you talk to an elementary school 
educator or administrator they can tell you which children have been in 
the Parents as Teachers program because it is that obvious from the 
start. A 2008 published, peer-reviewed study of almost 8,000 Missouri 
children found that 82 percent of low-income children who participated 
in both Parents as Teachers and preschool entered kindergarten ready to 
learn, as compared to only 64 percent of similar children who had no 
involvement in either service.
  At third grade, 88 percent of low-income children who participated in 
both Parents as Teachers and preschool received a benchmark level of 
performance on the Missouri Assessment Program Communication Arts test, 
compared to 77 percent of similar children with no involvement.
  These results confirm what I know from personal experience and have 
heard from so many parents in PAT--it is a tremendous benefit to them 
and their children.
  To date, more than 2 million families nationwide have received the 
education and support of PAT programs. These are accomplishments of 
which we can be proud, but we need to do more. There are more families 
that can and should be reached by this life-changing program, which is 
why I have introduced the Education Begins at Home Act with Senators 
Murray and Clinton. This legislation will establish the first dedicated 
Federal funding stream to support the expansion of PAT.
  Our bill has had strong bipartisan support in the past, and I expect 
it will continue. It would authorize $400 million over 3 years to 
States to expand access to Parents as Teachers. It would provide $50 
million over 3 years to fund innovative ideas and partnerships at the 
local level to expand access to PAT in communities with limited English 
proficiency, and it would provide $50 million over 3 years to reach 
more military families by expanding access to PAT in schools and 
community organizations that serve military families.
  As a side note, we have established the program at several military 
facilities in Missouri where one parent is often gone overseas, and the 
family may not have any normal family network to help them. This brings 
the parents together and it also provides them some of the resources 
that they might get from a grandmother or an aunt or even an uncle.
  Parents as Teachers builds on the principle that babies are born to 
learn and that the child's parent is the first and most important 
teacher. PAT gives parents the tools they need to prepare children for 
success in school and life, and helps parents become more active 
participants in their child's education. I believe the expansion of 
Parents as Teachers is a sound investment in the future of our children 
and our families, and I hope my colleagues will join me in it.


                        Vision Care For Kids Act

  I, also, wish to add comments about another extremely important act 
to ensure the success of children--the Vision Care for Kids Act. Eighty 
percent of what kids learn in their early years is visual, but one in 
four children has a vision problem that can interfere with learning, 
and only one in three children receive any form of preventive vision 
care before school.
  As I said, children have tremendous potential to learn and succeed, 
but untreated vision disorders can lead to permanent vision loss. I 
know that, personally, because I suffer from a permanent vision loss 
due to a previously undiagnosed condition which wasn't learned about 
until it was too late. If the condition had been discovered and treated 
before I entered school, I could have avoided a lifetime of vision 
loss--and I might have done a much better job of catching fly balls in 
the outfield.
  The Vision Care for Kids Act, which I have reintroduced with Senator 
Dodd, establishes a grant program to complement and encourage existing 
State efforts to improve children's vision care. Ensuring good vision 
for kids will help them see bright futures ahead of them. I invite my 
colleagues to join us in supporting children and families through these 
important bills.
  For the vision care, talk with Senator Dodd or me. For Parents as 
Teachers, talk with Senator Murray or me. We would love to have you on 
these two important bills.
  I thank the Chair and I thank the staff for according me this 
opportunity.

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