[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 15, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   INTRODUCTION OF THE UNIVERSAL PREKINDERGARTEN AND EARLY CHILDHOOD 
                         EDUCATION ACT OF 2022

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 15, 2022

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the Universal 
Prekindergarten and Early Childhood Education Act of 2022, a version of 
which I have introduced in seven previous Congresses. My bill would 
establish and expand prekindergarten programs in public and public 
charter schools for three- and four-year-old children. The 
prekindergarten years are critical for children's brain development.
  My bill seeks a breakthrough in public education by providing funding 
for states to add prekindergarten for children at three and four years 
of age, like kindergarten programs for five-year-old children now 
routinely available in public schools. This bill would eliminate major 
shortcomings of unevenly available day care and, importantly, would 
take advantage of the safe facilities required in public schools.
  My bill provides federal funds to states, which must be matched by at 
least 20 percent of a state's own funds, to establish or expand 
universal, voluntary prekindergarten in public and public charter 
schools, regardless of income. The classes, which would be part of a 
full-day program and run throughout the entire school year, must be 
taught by teachers who possess equivalent qualifications to those 
teaching other grades in the school. The funds would supplement, not 
supplant, other federal funds for early childhood education. The unique 
moneysaving aspect of my bill is that it uses the existing public-
school infrastructure and trained teachers to make early childhood 
education available to all, saving billions of dollars in 
implementation costs.
  The success of Head Start and other prekindergarten programs, 
combined with new scientific evidence on the importance of brain 
development in early childhood, virtually mandates the expansion of 
early childhood education to all children. Early learning programs 
mainly have been available only to the affluent, who can afford them, 
and to some low-income families in programs such as Head Start, which 
would be unaffected by my bill. My bill provides a practical way to 
universal, public preschool education for the majority of families. The 
goal of the bill is to afford the benefits of early childhood education 
to the working poor, lower middle class and middle class, most of whom 
have been left out of this essential education for their children.
  We cannot afford to allow the most fertile years for childhood 
development to pass unenriched. My bill responds to the great needs of 
parents who seek early childhood education, as well as to today's brain 
science, which shows that a child's brain development begins much 
earlier than had been previously understood.
  Considering the staggering cost of day care, the inaccessibility of 
early childhood education and the opportunity that early education 
offers to improve a child's chances of success, schooling for three- 
and four-year-old children is overdue. The absence of viable options 
for families demands our immediate attention.
  My bill reflects what jurisdictions throughout the nation 
increasingly are trying to accomplish. The District of Columbia, for 
example, has achieved an extensive integration of early childhood 
education as part of a larger effort to improve D.C. public schools.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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