[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12622]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         STRENGTHEN OUR SCHOOLS

  (Ms. WOOLSEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, many of the children with the greatest 
capacity to learn will not be finishing their school year because they 
did not have a school year. I am talking about children under 5 who are 
often left behind because too few States offer universal, voluntary, 
State-funded, pre-K programs.
  Democrats believe every parent who wants to send a young child to 
pre-K should have that opportunity, regardless of their income. 
Democrats are committed, as part of our ``Democrats' New Partnership 
for America's Future,'' to working with States to establish, expand, or 
improve high-quality, pre-K programs.
  The bottom line is: pre-K works. Children who participate are more 
likely to excel academically, go to college, and hold a secure job, and 
less likely to require special education, to have delinquency problems, 
or slip into welfare dependency.
  This is the educational equivalent of preventive health care. As 
childhood immunizations allow us to avoid debilitating illness, 
similarly, high-quality pre-K reduces the need for remedial efforts and 
produces more successful adults.
  Like all educational issues, this is fundamentally an economic issue. 
High-quality pre-K is a desperately needed investment in our children, 
their future, and our Nation's economic strength.
  Mr. Speaker, our global competitors do not wait until children turn 5 
to begin their formal education. Why should we?

                          ____________________