[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 8, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S2232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                        WEEK OF THE YOUNG CHILD

 Mr. BEGICH. Mr. President, this is a special week. The Week of 
the Young Child, launched by the National Association for the Education 
of Young Children in 1971 and carried out in communities across the 
country, is a time to raise public awareness about the importance of 
high-quality early childhood education and to recognize the millions of 
people who care for and teach young children every day.
  The theme of this year's Week of the Young Child is ``early years are 
learning years.'' Research is compelling that children are ready to 
learn from birth--what they need are the positive conditions and 
opportunities to learn and thrive not only to be prepared for school 
but to prepare to be productive adults.
  Early childhood education is about development and learning, but it 
is also an economic driver. Nobel laureate James Heckman and others 
note that when we invest in high-quality early childhood education, 
starting with infants, the taxpayer benefits from lower expenditures 
for special and remedial education, reduced juvenile crime rates, and 
higher graduation rates.
  Even though we know about the importance of early childhood 
education, for many families the costs are too much for the family 
budget, especially high-quality programs. The child care and 
development block grant, helping families afford childcare and helping 
states raise the quality of care, serves only one in six eligible 
children. In fact, roughly 260,000 fewer children received assistance 
in 2012 than in 2006. I am glad we ended the cuts to Head Start in 
fiscal year 2014, but even so, we help less than half of the eligible 
preschoolers and only 4 percent of eligible Early Head Start infants 
and toddlers. State pre-K is growing, but it is uneven quality among 
our States and doesn't reach all the eligible children whose families 
would want to enroll them. Early intervention services--a significant 
intervention for children's early school readiness--is woefully 
underfunded as well.
  The educators who work with these young children in childcare, Head 
Start and other program settings are very underpaid. A childcare 
provider makes about $20,000 a year. The turnover rate is high. When 
teachers get a degree, they can move to better jobs to support their 
own families, but it means inconsistency of relationships for children 
and difficulty sustaining quality for providers. We must do more to 
ensure early childhood educators get the specialized degrees and 
credentials they need and then compensate them on par with their 
school-based colleagues.
  In my State of Alaska, one snowy night over a year ago in Anchorage, 
I met with about 50 strongly committed Alaska educators to talk about 
how to improve our schools and prepare our students for the competitive 
21st-century economy.
  From that conversation, the idea for three bills evolved. I then 
introduced a package of legislation, the Keep Investing in 
Developmental Success, KIDS, Act. These three early childhood bills 
will address access, quality, and affordability in early education 
programs.
  First, we will amend the Tax Code to provide a tax credit for early 
childhood educators. The Tax Relief for Early Educators Act will expand 
the deductions for certain expenses for early childhood education and 
increase the childcare tax credit so more parents can afford to put 
their children in quality early child development programs.
  Second, we will create a new student loan forgiveness program for 
graduates of associate's or bachelor's programs in early education. The 
Preparing and Reinvesting in Early Education Act--or PRE ED--will 
provide needed relief for early educators and encourage more to work 
with kids through age 5. Well-trained educators providing quality early 
education makes all the difference in a child's success.
  Third, we need to reward companies offering onsite or near-site 
childcare with a company cost-share. We know it works for the company 
and for the employee--just look around our State. In Alaska BP, Credit 
Union One and Fairbanks Memorial Hospital are great examples. They all 
offer quality onsite centers. They know it makes more productive 
employees.
  The Child Care Public-Private Partnership Act will establish a 
program to provide childcare through partnerships. Through new grant 
incentives for small and medium companies, we can help more Alaska 
companies do the same.
  These bills recognize the importance of childcare in the lives of 
working families. They will make it easier for early childhood 
educators to provide stimulating and effective instruction in safe 
environments
  As we recognize and celebrate this week of the young child, we need 
to be perfectly clear in our commitment to continue to support and 
expand the education of children. I believe all of my colleagues in the 
Senate should join together to make this a priority because, as this 
year's theme says so well, the early years are indeed the learning 
years.

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