[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 28372]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1745
                     EARLY EDUCATION WORKFORCE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Hirono) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Early 
Education Workforce Act.
  Our youngest children are our most precious resources. Research shows 
that a child surrounded by a safe, stimulating and caring environment 
will literally develop a stronger brain. That child enters kindergarten 
ready to succeed and is more likely to graduate from high school, hold 
a steady job, and avoid prison.
  Early education not only benefits the child and the adult he or she 
will become; it also helps to ensure that America has the educated 
workforce we will need to address challenges as a Nation in the future.
  I believe in research-based policy. If we don't know something is 
going to work, I hesitate to invest Federal dollars. Unfortunately, in 
many cases research is ambiguous at best, but high-quality early 
education is a great exception.
  We know it works. The research continues to mount as experts from all 
fields, economists, neurologists, police officers and teachers, come to 
a consensus that it pays to invest early in our children.
  Our States are making great progress in ensuring that every family 
has the option of sending their children to high-quality child care and 
preschool. However, in Hawaii and around the country, we are facing a 
major roadblock. We simply do not have a stable, adequate supply of 
qualified early education childhood professionals. If we don't have the 
teachers, we don't have quality programs; and this is a major problem 
because quality is a key ingredient in early education.
  A poorly designed program or an understaffed one is not going to 
produce the results we owe our kids, so we must address this problem. 
We must recruit and retain early educators. And how do we do that? We 
can start by passing this authorization bill to streamline professional 
development opportunities, open doors to early education degree 
programs, and begin to address the woefully inadequate compensation our 
preschool teachers and child care workers receive.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill on behalf of our children 
and to honor and encourage the people who dedicate their lives to 
preparing our youngest children for success.

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