[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6476]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            SAVE HEAD START

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address a potential problem 
hidden deep in the President's budget. The budget says that the 
President is seeking to give States the opportunity to exercise more 
control over Head Start and that he would like to move responsibility 
of Head Start from the Department of Health and Human Services to the 
Department of Education.
  Now, this may not seem like a big deal to many listening tonight, but 
I believe that it will have a damaging effect on our most vulnerable 
children. They say this change is intended to focus Head Start on 
school readiness and teacher training.
  Well, for those who do not know what Head Start is, that may seem 
like an admirable goal. Head Start already does that and I agree that 
these are important goals and should be worked on continuously. Moving 
the program to the Department of Education will fundamentally alter the 
philosophy of the program.
  Head Start is already a readiness program and more. It is a program 
that prepares the whole child for life. The program teaches families 
about proper nutrition. It also provides health and mental health 
screenings and other important services that many of these children 
would not have if Head Start did not exist. It is important to remember 
why we created Head Start to begin with under the War on Poverty. Poor 
children and the children of working-class families did not have the 
opportunity to have a preschool experience before going into 
kindergarten. These were children that often times had never had a 
physical examination. And we were able to discover that there were 
children with dyslexia, with learning disabilities, with hearing 
problems, with sight problems. We caught that in Head Start, and we 
were able to truly give these young people a chance to be successful.
  Prior to Head Start, children were going into school with these 
deficiencies and getting put in special education classes because they 
thought they could not learn. President Johnson began Head Start and 
the War on Poverty because he saw a need to help families prepare their 
children for school and to break the cycle of poverty that many low-
income families fall into.
  Head Start has been a tremendous success. Study after study has shown 
that children who were enrolled in this program were more ready to 
learn when they entered kindergarten than their counterparts who were 
not enrolled. In addition, they were less likely to repeat a grade and 
more likely to graduate from high school; and these same students 
experienced greater long-term social and economic benefits than those 
students who were not enrolled in the program. Put simply, this is a 
program that works.
  Instead of fundamentally altering this program, ruining its core 
philosophy that has guided it over the past 37 years, we should be 
nurturing it. I am here tonight to urge the President and my fellow 
Members of Congress to fully fund Head Start, resist the urge to 
provide funding in the form of block grants, and to keep the program 
within the Department of Health and Human Services. All of these would 
strip the program of its effectiveness.
  Mr. Speaker, I have received many letters from parents and students 
who are asking that Congress not make any changes to Head Start. I 
would like to read you a couple of lines from them. One simply states, 
``I have 3-year-old twins and a 9-year-old daughter, all of whom have 
been in Head Start and it has been a wonderful experience for them.''
  Another says, ``It not only taught my daughter her 1-2-3s and ABCs 
but it also taught her self-esteem.'' And it concludes, ``It has 
brought my family closer together.''
  Said another, ``I cannot express to you how grateful I am for the 
life-changing experience Head Start gave to me.''
  Mr. Speaker, we must not change Head Start. It is too important, and 
it has helped too many people to improve their lives.
  I am not simply speaking about what I heard. I worked in the Head 
Start program, first as an assistant teacher, then as supervisor of 
parent involvement and volunteer services where I got parents 
understanding that they could be in control of their children's 
educational destiny. These parents become successful parents in the PTA 
programs once they are transitioned into kindergarten. And that is what 
it is all about, involving parents in their children's education, 
helping them to know that they can make their children successful. So 
we do not want to mess with Head Start. We want to make sure, again, we 
support and nurture it.

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