[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19401]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           SCHOOL READINESS ACT ADVERSELY AFFECTS MINORITIES

  (Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning 
to discuss how the School Readiness Act will adversely affect minority 
children. What we are talking about here is Head Start. Of the 900,000 
children in Head Start, 300,000 are Hispanic. This is something very 
near and dear to my heart. I am a former Head Start child.
  The Republicans argue that the School Readiness Act will not allow 
States to supplant Federal funding, but, in fact, CRS, the 
Congressional Research Service, indicates that that is just the case.
  Why should we care? I will tell my colleagues that every 
kindergarten, first grade and second grade teacher in my district that 
I have visited in every school, and I have gone to all of them, has 
told me that the number one thing that the Federal Government can do at 
the education level is to fund Head Start, to give our children the 
ability to start even at the starting line of education.
  So why, why would the Republicans take a program that is working and 
try to change it, to put more barriers in front of our minority 
children?

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