[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23335]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                               EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, when I first came to Washington, I was 
determined to make education our Nation's number one priority. That 
commitment has not changed.
  What has changed is my understanding of what it takes so that our 
children are ready to learn when they enter the classroom. We can have 
the best schools and the best teachers in the world; but if our 
children do not enter the classroom ready to succeed, those schools and 
those teachers and those students will fail.
  Let us face it, if today's children are lucky enough to have two 
parents living with them, chances are both parents work outside the 
home, they work long hours, they commute long distances, and it is our 
children who are being left behind.
  It is certainly not their parents' fault. They are working and 
commuting long hours to support their families. But it is our children 
who are paying the price because their parents need to earn a living. 
That is not right. Parents should not have to choose between financial 
stability and their children's emotional stability. We need to help 
parents bridge the gap between work and family so their children are 
ready to learn when they enter the classroom.
  Mr. Speaker, we know that learning does not start on the first day of 
kindergarten. Children are growing and changing from the very day they 
are born. Study after study has shown that the first 3 years are 
critical to a child's development. Provisions need to be made for 
families so that they can be together at these critical times so 
parents can be with new babies and newly adopted children.
  Paid family leave is a key tool we can use to make sure that children 
get off to a positive start and that their parents can be with them at 
these critical times. And by providing parents with voluntary universal 
prekindergarten programs, we will give them the chance to get their 
children on the right track. Programs like Head Start and Early Head 
Start show us that pre-K programs work. All parents should have the 
option of enrolling their children in a structured, quality, voluntary 
pre-K program.
  With parents working hard, children are spending more and more time 
in child care. Ensuring that quality child care is available to all 
children will go a long way to making sure that our children are ready 
to learn when they go to school.
  We need more good child care, including care for children under the 
age of 3 and for night and weekend workers. But it is not just young 
children who are coming to school unprepared. Older children face 
challenges also.
  Title XI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which I wrote 
and saw signed into law in my first term, needs to be expanded. It 
needs to be expanded to allow schools to use more Federal funds for in-
school support services for students and for their families.
  Services such as after-school programs, mentoring programs, tutoring 
and counseling help young people address their angers and their 
frustrations and their fears before they have tragic consequences, and 
these programs ensure that young people are ready to learn when they 
enter the classroom.
  Also, Mr. Speaker, students cannot learn when they are hungry. It is 
proven that those students who eat breakfast do better on tests, they 
are more well-behaved in school, and they miss less time from school 
than those who do not eat breakfast. We need to make sure every child 
starts the day off with a good meal.
  My pilot Federal breakfast program, which is underway in five school 
districts across the Nation, is the first step toward a universal 
school breakfast program.
  We must also make quality education accessible to all of our 
children. That means building new, modern schools that are welcoming to 
those with disabilities as well as to those without. That means making 
sure that no one is left behind.
  In the high-tech global economy, however, those without a high-tech 
education, those without high-tech skills will be left behind. That is 
why we must make sure that minorities and women are encouraged to study 
math, science, technology, and engineering. Females make up slightly 
more than 50 percent of this country's population, but less than 30 
percent of America's scientists are women.
  My ``Go Girl'' bill will create a bold new workforce of energized 
young women in science, math and technology careers.

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