[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5902-5910]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WEEK OF THE YOUNG CHILD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, before I begin, I would like to 
ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in 
which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous 
material.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Florida?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity 
that has been given to us by Speaker Pelosi tonight to talk about an 
issue that is affecting literally millions of families across America, 
and that is the lack of affordable child care and early childhood 
education. It is especially important to highlight these issues as this 
week marks the Week of the Young Child.
  For the next hour, we're going to focus on young children and how, 
over the last 7 years, we have failed to provide adequate and necessary 
funding for vital child care and early childhood education.
  And I can tell you, Madam Speaker, that as a mother of three young 
children--I have 8-year-old twins and an almost 5-year-old, 4\1/2\-
year-old little girl--this is something that is near and dear to my 
heart.
  I remember the struggle that I went through when I first gave birth 
to my twins and had to go back to work, and we searched and searched 
for a quality child care program. We were turning our newborn babies, 3 
months old, 4 months old, over to really, basically, someone we didn't 
know, someone to care for our little ones all day long. You know, we 
just couldn't even imagine turning over the care of our babies, our 
most precious resource, we couldn't imagine turning over our babies to 
anyone.
  So you can imagine the struggle that people go through when, on top 
of having to decide where they can take their children to be cared for 
while they work, that they also have to struggle through the angst of 
not knowing or not expecting that they can afford that care. And 
because we have continued to slash and burn from this administration 
the funding for Head Start and for the Child Care Development Block 
Grants programs, we absolutely wanted to come to the floor tonight and 
spend an hour, at least an hour, highlighting the needs that children 
in this country have, and particularly those of working families. And 
I'm going to be joined tonight by several of my colleagues.
  Before we begin, though, I do want to recognize and thank our good 
friend, Chairman George Miller of the Education and Labor Committee, 
and Chairman Kildee, Dale Kildee, for their leadership and their 
commitment to child care issues and education, as well as the Head 
Start and Child Care Development Block Grant Program funding. These are 
all programs that are near and dear to their hearts, and a number of 
these Members have submitted statements.
  We just have to highlight that there are children, especially those 
from low-income families, that need better access to high-quality early 
childhood programs. Across the Nation, Madam Speaker, child care fees 
average from $4,000 to $10,000 per year which exceed the cost of public 
universities in most States. Yet nationally, only one in seven children 
who are financially eligible for child care subsidies is being served. 
One in seven.
  And at this time, I would like to turn the podium over to a champion 
for America's children, the voice in this body that is consistently 
there for those who have no voice. She is the current Chair of the 
Woman's Caucus, Congressman Lois Capps of California.
  Mrs. CAPPS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in 
recognition of the Week of the Young Child. I want to thank our 
colleague from Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is such a good 
role model, and oftentimes her children are here, and they give 
testimony to the fact that working moms can be successful parents as 
well as wonderful professionals in this business that we're in.
  And I'm pleased to be with some of my colleagues, Mazie Hirono and 
Jason Altmire and others who may join us, to call attention to the 
importance of the Week of the Young Child.

[[Page 5903]]

My daughter and her dearest friend, whom she met in preschool, are 
visiting and taking part in this; and it's a testimony to the 
importance of those early years and some life-long friendships that can 
result as a result of that.
  As we celebrate this important week, I want to take the opportunity 
to highlight two very critical programs which our colleague has already 
mentioned that are so important to young children: The Child Care and 
Development Block Grant, CCDBG, and Head Start. As someone who has 
spent most of my life working with our kids in our public schools, I 
know firsthand the power and the importance of these programs for both 
our kids and our families.
  Due to the realities and demands of today's family life, there are 
many young people, many children who are left with too much 
unstructured time, and we know the hours right after school are the 
most dangerous and important hours of the day.
  Unfortunately, parents are working longer hours and often have to 
leave their children in the care of their siblings or others who should 
not have to have the responsibility to do this. Child care can often be 
the second highest cost in the family budget. Sometimes, it's the 
highest. Child care costs consume roughly 42 percent of the median 
single parent's family income, at around $10,000 annually.
  With a growing home mortgage crisis and stagnant economic outlook, 
parents cannot afford this. It's simply a matter that is of dire 
consequence to many of our families today.
  Child care and development block grants enable 162,000 children a 
month in California to receive adequate child care. As the only source 
of Federal funding to subsidize child care for low-income families, 
CCDBG has life-changing effects on thousands of families in California 
and therefore needs our full support.
  Unfortunately, this program has been level funded for 6 years, and 
that is why I'm fully supporting an $874 million increase in CCDBG. 
This funding would restore the program to an adequate level and provide 
child care to an additional 39,400 children in California alone. And as 
you can see from the chart here, there are children all across this 
country standing in line, waiting in line.
  One of the largest circles, if not the largest circle, is the one 
that designates California where 207,000 children today are standing in 
line waiting for child care. And you know, we know children don't stand 
in line. They don't stay. It is not status quo for children. They miss 
an opportunity. There's a black hole. There's a gap in what they need 
for their development, and that time goes away, and it never will come 
back to them.
  This investment that we need to make here will not only result in 
boosting children's social development and their school readiness but 
results in stable and productive employment among parents. The biggest 
worry that parents have on the job is what's happening to their 
children at home. The biggest obstruction to their doing their job well 
is the worry and the constant concern about where their children are 
and how they're being cared for.
  Providing the resources for children will help these parents gain 
promotions in their job and do a better work product for their 
employers.
  Additionally, an early childhood education provides a foundation 
necessary for the child's educational future. For four decades, Head 
Start programs have so successfully provided early education, health 
care, social service and parental involvement support for low-income 
children and their families. This is a proven program. It's tested. 
It's tried. It has succeeded for over the generations, and we know that 
this program works. It is one of the most cost-effective ways we can 
use tax dollars. The program helps children start their education ready 
to succeed.
  So much of education is focused on closing achievement gaps, and I 
believe Head Start is one of the best tools to do that because it 
starts at the front end before the gaps widen. Sadly, Head Start has 
received only modest funding increases over the past 7 years. Without 
an increase, thousands of children could lose access to Head Start 
because of inflation. The program is fundamental to the education 
success of thousands of children. We know that, and yet the program can 
only serve roughly half of the children who are eligible.
  I know, I believe I have seen it firsthand; Head Start gives all 
children the opportunity to succeed in school and therefore in life. 
And I fully support a $1.072 billion increase for this vital program. 
Our children deserve this support.
  And now it is my pleasure to relinquish my time to my colleagues who 
will carry this debate in this hour of conversation forward, and I'm so 
honored to be amongst them and to know that we are speaking for others 
in our Congress as well who know that this is the time to act on these 
matters.
  I thank my colleague for yielding to me.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I thank Congresswoman Capps. You have just 
been an incredible leader on the issues that are important to women and 
young families, and it is so incredibly important in this Week of the 
Young Child that we have a leader like Congresswoman Capps, the Chair 
of the Women's Caucus, who has been such a stalwart on the issues that 
are important to young women and families; and it's just a pleasure to 
have her join us on the floor today.
  It is also a pleasure to have such a committed and passionate and 
compassionate father serving in the House of Representatives with us 
from Pennsylvania, a wonderful father of two young daughters and 
someone who has done an incredible job since he's joined the Congress 
after the 2006 election, Congressman Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania.

                              {time}  2100

  Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentlewoman. And I did want to say about our 
colleague from California, there are a lot of advocates for children 
and for young families in this Congress, and a lot of us are passionate 
about those issues, but there is no one who has done more advocacy and 
has worked harder than Congresswoman Capps, and so I want to thank her 
for her comments.
  I was in my office and I heard that this Special Order was beginning. 
And the gentlewoman knows the passion that I bring to the table to 
these issues. Early childhood education is something I have always 
talked about. I am a member of a board that is not even in my district. 
There is an organization far outside my district called the Heritage 
Health Foundation in a town called Braddock, Pennsylvania, and they 
sponsor an early childhood education center called the For Kids Center. 
And it's been in existence long enough that you can see the fruits of 
the labor there. You can see children that have come through the 
program, that have had access to early childhood education, and compare 
them to this community that has fallen on hard times, students and 
children that have not had access at the same level to early childhood 
education. And what you find is that the students who have gone through 
the For Kids Center, the early childhood center and have had access to 
those services test three grade levels ahead of their peers when you 
test peer to peer.
  Early childhood education works, there is no question about it. And 
the dollars that we reinvest into the system are paid back many times 
over in the dividends that they pay in the grade levels and testing 
better and the performance throughout their school, and they get into 
less trouble and the kids perform better academically. It all builds 
upon itself.
  So when I was elected to Congress, as the gentlewoman said, in 2006, 
one of the first things you have to do is choose what committee you're 
going to serve on. And I knew right away that I wanted to serve on the 
Education Committee because I wanted to work on the Head Start 
Reauthorization. That's one of the first things out of the gate that 
that committee was tasked with doing. I was involved with the Head 
Start Reauthorization, and we were able to get that through Congress 
because everyone should be able to agree on the need for early 
childhood education.

[[Page 5904]]

  In Pennsylvania, we have 7,529 children that are standing in line for 
child care. In the chart that the congresswoman from California (Mrs. 
Capps) showed, you can see Pennsylvania; 7,529 children that should 
have access to child care and early education services, but don't.
  So I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida for her friendship 
and her leadership. As she mentioned, I do have two young daughters, 
and I can see the value of these services. I just wish that everyone in 
this country could have access to the same services that we have access 
to. I thank you for your leadership and for the opportunity to address 
the House tonight.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you, Mr. Altmire. And thank you for your 
leadership and for giving your time in public service to make sure that 
the next generation is well represented here in the halls of Congress.
  It is incredibly important and so beneficial to the issues important 
to working families to have parents of young children serving in the 
Congress, having moms and dads who are living and dealing with these 
issues every day. We've got to make sure that we have their voice 
represented strongly in this House of Representatives.
  And now it's my privilege to turn the mic over to my good friend who 
represents the beautiful islands of Hawaii, the gentlewoman from 
Hawaii, Mazie Hirono.
  Ms. HIRONO. I thank the gentlelady from Florida for her leadership on 
issues important to our young people, and for yielding some time to me.
  I know that you mentioned mothers and fathers. Well, grandparents, 
too, because I'm a step-grandparent and I have a wonderful step-
daughter who has two young children. So these are issues near and dear 
to all of us.
  As we commemorate the Week of the Young Child, I rise today in strong 
support of quality early childhood education, and tonight, in 
particular, for increased funding for Head Start and the Child Care and 
Development block grants, two Federal programs supporting our youngest 
children.
  Congress got it right when it created Head Start 43 years ago. This 
is an example of a government program that families depend on every day 
and that really works, thanks largely to the many talented and 
dedicated teachers throughout our Nation.
  I want to take a moment to commemorate the life of one such teacher, 
Mrs. Leona Stevens, who served as the lead teacher at several Maui Head 
Start centers for over 15 years. She passed away unexpectedly recently 
and will be deeply missed by all of us.
  Mrs. Stevens was known for valuing students' creativity and 
continually asked them, ``why do you think that'' and ``what do you 
think will happen?'' She was equally passionate about improving the 
quality of Head Start by training new early education teachers and 
furthering her own education. She went back to school to get her 
associates degree in early childhood education and spent 7 years 
working in partnership with Maui Community College to train new Head 
Start teachers.
  Last year, while Leona was mentoring new young teachers, Congress 
worked hard to pass the Head Start Reauthorization bill, which was 
signed into law. The bill made many improvements to this program, but 
the single most important thing we did was to increase the amount of 
money authorized for Head Start.
  Of course we all know the difference between authorized levels and 
appropriated levels. This year, we must put our money where our mouth 
is. The fact is, only half of all eligible children are served by Head 
Start, and a measly 3 percent of eligible infants and toddlers are 
served by early Head Start. This means hundreds of thousands of low-
income families are without access to high-quality early education 
opportunities for their children.
  Speaker Pelosi hosted a summit for America's children last year in 
which we heard from neuroscientists, police chiefs, business leaders, 
all of whom told us in unequivocal language that it pays to invest in 
children before they turn six. I chaired a hearing on early education 
in the full Education and Labor Committee earlier this year, and we 
heard the same message from State level advocates and policy makers.
  I talk to parents, Kindergarten teachers and business leaders in 
Hawaii every time I go home, and they tell me that we must increase 
access to high-quality early education and child care opportunities. 
Why? Because that is the best investment that we can make in our young 
children and in our country's future.
  Certainly this year, like every other year, Congress will face many 
difficult spending decisions. We will fund our veterans and troops, 
fund health and alternative energy research, fund our public schools. I 
will support increases in all of these things, but this is not a zero 
sum game and we cannot afford to let our youngest children slip through 
the cracks.
  We should increase funding for Head Start by at least $1 billion and 
increase funding for CCDBG by $874 million. It is a matter of fairness. 
Every child deserves a shot at success. We know, however, that many 
children from low-income families start Kindergarten with half the 
vocabulary of their wealthier peers. High-quality preschool can do much 
to close this gap.
  It is a matter, also, of economic prosperity. Our small business 
community, our science and technology community all need educated 
workers. Low-income children who go to a high-quality preschool are 
more likely to graduate from high school than their peers that did not 
go to preschool.
  Finally, it is a smart investment of Federal dollars. Research shows 
that every dollar invested in high-quality early education programs 
returns somewhere between $2 and $17. Even at the very low end of that 
spectrum, it is a worthwhile investment.
  Parents, police officers, business owners and teachers across Hawaii 
and the rest of the country are asking us to make children a priority. 
I know that Maui's beloved Mrs. Stevens would join them. I urge my 
colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to provide real increases to 
these vital programs.
  And I close by saying that the working people of Hawaii, we have a 
much higher percentage of working parents, working single parents than 
probably any other State in the country, and that is because the cost 
of living is very high in Hawaii. I've talked to the many mothers and 
fathers and grandparents who take care of their grandchildren now of 
how important it is for their kids and their grandchildren to have a 
good start in life. And certainly one of the best ways for them to get 
a good start in life is to make sure that we continue to support Head 
Start and the other grant programs that will give them this chance.
  I yield back to my colleague from Florida and thank her for her 
continuing leadership on these and so many other issues.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you so much, Congresswoman Hirono. You 
have been an incredible leader when it comes to the issues that are 
important to working families.
  I often think about the constituents that you represent. We make 
public policies so far away from the people that you represent; they 
need a strong voice all the more for that reason, and you have done an 
amazing job representing them. It's a pleasure and an honor to serve 
with you here.
  Ms. HIRONO. Same here. Thank you very much.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you very much.
  Mr. Speaker, to continue on with the highlighting of the Week of the 
Young Child, there are statistics that are incredibly important, and I 
will go through some of those this evening. But more important than the 
statistics and the studies are the stories. And I can tell you, as a 
mom with young children, who I probably will talk about quite a bit 
this evening, you don't need studies, you don't need statistics to be 
able to see the progress that your child makes when they go through a 
preschool, when they go through a childcare program. And you can see 
their brain literally working like sponges, absorbing the information 
and processing it and turning it into useful information. And I can 
tell you that I've seen my children, my

[[Page 5905]]

four-and-a-half-year-old is still in pre-K and is just about to enter 
Kindergarten next year. And I've watched her learn her ABCs, she can 
count to 100, she knows every color, every shape. And had she not had 
an opportunity to go to a wonderful preschool program to learn those 
things, yes, I could have spent time with her and taught her those 
things, but given that I work full-time, and when I think about the 
hundreds of thousands, millions of parents who have to struggle with 
that choice, and then an administration that callously cuts those 
programs or flat funds them so that fewer, not more, parents have 
access to Head Start and child care, it's just absolutely 
unconscionable. I wonder if they have a soul. I wonder if there is 
anyone in the White House that has a soul and that has a heart. Because 
surely those kinds of decisions are only made by heartless people.
  I am so glad to be joined by the gentlewoman from New York, a 
wonderful Member, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke. And I am glad that she 
has also joined me tonight.
  Before I turn it over to her, I want to highlight a story of Jennifer 
from Chicago because, like I said, highlighting the stories as opposed 
to the studies and the stats is what really shows you the kind of 
impact that the policy decisions that we make up here when it comes to 
funding child care programs and Head Start adequately, that's what 
really matters.
  I want to talk about Jennifer from Chicago, who was profiled in a 
news story on Marketplace radio. Jennifer works as a receptionist at a 
real estate company. She is a single mom working full-time and going to 
school part-time. And so many people will hear their own story in 
Jennifer's story.
  Jennifer was doing all she could to improve her life and the life of 
her daughter. In fact, even though Jennifer was working full-time, 
raising her daughter on her own and going to school part-time, she 
impressed her boss so much with her work that she was given a small 
raise. And then, Jennifer ran into a big problem. With the raise that 
she got, she could no longer qualify for assistance with the Illinois 
child care program that she had been using. She literally had such a 
dramatic shift in what she had to pay for her daughter's child care, it 
went from $2,000 to $9,000 a year just by that small increase in her 
salary, and that small increase in her salary caused the $9,000 that 
she then had to pay, that was 40 percent of her salary, just from the 
small raise that she got. Her only option at that point was to send her 
5-year-old daughter to live with the girl's father a couple of hours 
away in Indiana. So she had to either give up her job or give up her 
daughter. But if she gave up her job, she wouldn't be able to care for 
her daughter, Mr. Speaker. So obviously this is a situation that was 
not working.
  So Jennifer, this is just so sad, she had to go back to her boss and 
actually ask him for a demotion. She had to ask him to cut her pay by 
about $100 per paycheck so that she could be eligible for the 
subsidized child care again so that she could get her daughter back. 
That was the choice that she was faced with, and it was just awful. I 
can't even imagine. That meant that her income would again qualify for 
the child care assistance, and then she immediately applied for it.
  So the transition from paying a copayment to paying the full cost of 
care is what Illinois Action for Children calls ``the cliff.'' People 
like Jennifer, they fall off the cliff. And we actually penalize people 
like Jennifer who work hard to try to get ahead. We tell them no, you 
can't work your way up.
  We can't continue to hold these people back. We have got to make sure 
that we help these people pursue these dreams, advance themselves, be 
able to improve the quality of their children's education, improve 
their own lot in life and their family's lot in life, not give them a 
choice between giving up their children or pursuing a better 
opportunity in life.
  And Ms. Clarke, the National Women's Law Center says that only one in 
seven U.S. children are eligible for Federal child care help; only one 
in seven of those kids get it. And in the view of the National Women's 
Law Center, all these programs for Head Start and child care have never 
been fully funded by the Federal Government.
  I would be happy to yield to the gentlewoman. Thank you for joining 
us today.
  Ms. CLARKE. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida, Ms. Debbie 
Wasserman Schultz, for her leadership on this issue, and at the advent 
of the Week of the Young Child, that we would take this time to really 
put things in focus.
  You know, every time I go home to my district on the weekends there 
is a particular constituent of mine that no matter where he sees me, we 
say something to each other. He started this when I was running for 
office. And he said to me, ``Yvette, if you ever get elected, remember 
the children.''

                              {time}  2115

  Every time I run into the gentleman, he says the same thing to me 
over and over, and now that's how we greet each other: ``Remember the 
children.'' And while we're going through all of the challenges that we 
are facing in day-to-day life as adults, remembering the children is 
probably the most poignant message that we could give to this 
administration and, quite frankly, give to our constituencies and to 
this Nation. The investment we make in our youngest, most vulnerable 
today will be the difference in where this Nation will be in the next 
decade, the next score, the next 100 years. And the short-sightedness 
for so long in providing the real resource and support that our 
families need, that our parents need, that our mothers need, to give 
their children really what I believe they should be entitled to, 
because as you've stated already this evening, the science point to it. 
The earlier that we begin the education process for our children, the 
more advantaged they are. In communities of color, that means closing 
the gap, the achievement gap. We know this. It's well documented. 
Science backs it up. Yet the will, the will to really address this 
issue is really what we are addressing this evening.
  And when we think about the fact that we were innovative enough to 
know that creating a Child Care and Development Block Grant was 
important, that's fluff with no substance when there's no funding to 
it.
  And I have been very fortunate. I kind of grew up in the day care 
movement. Many people know my mother as a former councilwoman. But even 
prior to that, she started her career, one part of her career, let me 
put it that way, because she is the renaissance woman, but one of my 
earliest recollections of my mom and the work that she did was being a 
teacher's aide in a classroom in an early childhood education center. 
Some people call them day care centers. But I saw the certified 
teachers in the classroom. I saw the nutritious meals, the educational 
curricula that were developed just for these students. So I know 
better. I know that these are early childhood education.
  She worked her way up from being a teacher's aide to an assistant 
teacher and then to a full class teacher. She then went on to become a 
day care director and then became a supervisor of several day care 
centers within our city's extensive child care system.
  So the thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives that I've seen 
personally touched by an early childhood education experience, we can't 
put a dollar figure on it. These are young people who I run into today 
that say, ``I used to go to your mom's day care; I'm now a doctor.'' 
``I used to in your mom's day care; I'm now a teacher.'' ``I used to be 
in your mom's day care; can I write you a check?'' I'm like, all right, 
that's really worth it. That's really worth it.
  And I make light of it, but it's really up to us, the 110th Congress, 
to really push the envelope where this is concerned. This is where the 
rubber meets the road. We find ourselves in some really challenging 
times when it comes to workforce, workforce demands, the individuals 
who will be future employees. And we have talked about the challenge of 
our public school systems and truly adequately educating our

[[Page 5906]]

students and our scholars when we have this opportunity right now to 
make it clear that we do stand for the education of our children. We do 
stand for providing for young children this opportunity to get that 
head start in life.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Reclaiming my time, you made a reference to 
your mom and the wonderful quality of care that she provided to the 
children that she cared for over the years. And then, of course, she 
made hiring decisions as she moved up the ladder and became a child 
care director. Your comments about your mom's involvement with 
improving the lives of children in those programs made me think about 
finding the information on providers' salaries because it is horrendous 
that we are actually cutting the funding for these programs for the 
kids themselves and that only one in seven kids are eligible. But 
listen to the statistics about how much the providers, the teachers, 
are actually paid:
  The average Head Start teacher's salary, and, now, that's Head Start, 
not child care. We are talking about two separate programs here tonight 
so that people understand me because these acronyms get thrown around a 
whole lot in Washington. We have the Head Start program, which is the 
high-quality education program that subsidizes and provides high-
quality preschool education for young kids who are income eligible, and 
then there's the Child Care and Development Block Grant program, which 
is a subsidized child care program that is funded around the States and 
there's a Federal-State match for.
  So the average Head Start teacher's salary varies by the teacher's 
education. So if you have what's called a child development 
associate's, which is the first rung on the ladder in terms of an 
education credential, not a certified teacher but you have a lot of 
hours of course work that you've taken, an average Head Start teacher 
with a CDA gets paid about $21,000. If you have an associate's degree, 
so now you've got a 2-year college degree, you get $22,500. If you have 
a baccalaureate degree, that is a full-blown college degree, you make 
about $27,000 in the Head Start program. Now, the average teacher's 
salary, who also get hired with a baccalaureate degree, is about 
$48,000, $49,000. So a Head Start teacher, depending on their education 
credential, makes between $21,000 and $27,000 a year. I mean that is 
just unbelievable.
  Ms. CLARKE. It really is, if the gentleman will yield.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Absolutely. I just wanted to insert that.
  Ms. CLARKE. I think it's a very important point because one of the 
challenges that our very extensive public day care system is 
experiencing in the city of New York is the stress between being a 
certified teacher in the public day care center, the salaries received 
there, versus maybe a couple more course credits and going into the 
straight into the public schools that calling for more teachers, more 
qualified teachers, certified teachers, and so we see a bleeding of the 
system. We went through a very extensive time of advocacy, activism to 
really mobilize for early childhood education, for day care, for 
working parents, for working mothers, and now we are seeing an erosion, 
all a reaction to a lot of what we have seen in terms of the cuts. So 
in New York City, where we have had this longstanding system of over 
330 day care centers throughout the five boroughs that employ almost 
6,000 caregivers, we're seeing day care closings.
  And that doesn't mean the demand is gone. The demand continues. The 
waiting list continues in perpetuity. There will be some children who 
won't get this opportunity. They will be disadvantaged.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. It's not that the need is not there.
  Ms. CLARKE. That's right.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Is it really that if the funding is not there, 
then these centers can't afford to stay open?
  Ms. CLARKE. That's right. So there are some real challenges that we 
have to look squarely in the eye. And we have to ask ourselves what 
about the children? How are we preparing ourselves to sacrifice as a 
society to make sure that in 10 years, in 20 years, in 30 years, we are 
one of the most competitive nations in the world? We're struggling with 
those answers and trying to balance it all out now, but it begins with 
an investment that we make in our young.
  And what we are seeing in terms of these cuts and in terms of the 
rhetoric coming from the Bush Administration do not bode well, 
notwithstanding all of what we hear about his care and his concern for 
the families of our Nation.
  Put the money for the mouth is. That's what I say. Put the money 
where the mouth is. We want to expand and institutionalize early 
childhood education so that the United States is, indeed, the most 
competitive when it comes to development of our scientists and 
development of our engineers and development of those who will have to 
compete globally as our economy continues to morph with young scholars 
coming from other nations who have decided, notwithstanding their GDPs, 
to invest in the education of their children.
  And so I just wanted to stop in and share some of my experience with 
you, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and to say to my colleagues that we have to 
stand up. This is a critical issue, and as we reflect on the week of 
the young child, it is important that we not forget that they come from 
a community of families, and those families are struggling. They need 
to be able to be at the job on time. They need to be able to know that 
their children are safe and in a wholesome environment while they are 
at work. And that's what these child care centers and these early 
childhood education environments create for the children and for their 
parents: a sense of relief and a sense of well-being both for the child 
and the family.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Absolutely. And I want to thank you so much 
for coming down and joining me tonight.
  What we have been trying to do is highlight the consequences to these 
horrendous policymaking decisions. And I talked about Jennifer a few 
minutes ago and what her situation is like. Some of my colleagues from 
the various States that are represented on this chart mentioned their 
own States' statistics this evening. But I want to give a fuller 
picture of what the real consequences are to not funding adequately 
Head Start and Child Care and Development Block Grants. So this is what 
it looks like in my State, Ms. Clarke: In my State of Florida, nearly 
45,000 children are standing in line for child care. In other words, we 
have got almost 45,000 kids in my State who are eligible for child 
care, but they can't get it because we're not funding it adequately, I 
mean simply because we are not providing enough funds.
  I mean what are we spending it on? What is more important? Like you 
said, the gentleman that you said says the same refrain every single 
time, ``remember the children,'' that's what it is all about.
  I remember being pregnant with my twins and people telling me 
throughout my pregnancy, Oh, Debbie, you're life is going to change. 
Just wait. You're not going to believe it. You never imagined that you 
could care about something so much as when you give birth to your kids. 
And you sort of nod and smile, and you tell them, sure, you can imagine 
what it's going to be like. Well, you can't imagine. You can't imagine 
what it's going to be like until you have them. And that's what 
everybody tells you. You can't imagine that you could care and love 
something more than when you give birth to your children. And you would 
do anything to make sure that they were okay, that they had the best 
possible life that they could have.
  And when parents who are struggling to make sure that they can put 
food on the table, that they can pay the mortgage, not have the house 
foreclosed on, make sure that they can have time to go to their job, 
but, at the same time, have a high-quality child care situation so that 
they don't have to worry about the one or two or three or however many 
kids they have that they care more about than anything in the world, 
what it is this administration doing? Cutting the funding for our most 
precious resource.

[[Page 5907]]

  So it's not just Florida. It's not just New York. There are 207,000 
kids in California on a waiting list.
  How about Georgia? Georgia, Ms. Clarke, that actually has a pre-K 
program funded by the lottery, which is supposed to provide a pre-K 
education to all the 4 year olds in that State, and there are only 6 
million people in the State of Georgia as it is, there are 24,808, 
almost 25,000 kids on the waiting list for child care that they qualify 
for. In North Carolina almost 18,000 kids are on the waiting list, 
15,000 in Texas, 207,000 in California. Those are kids that don't have 
access to child care who are eligible.

                              {time}  2130

  Nationwide, it is 365,604 children who are waiting in line for child 
care. And what do those parents do? What do they do? They have to 
choose between working. If they don't work, how are they going to put 
food on the table? How are they going to be able to live? Many of these 
parents have to choose between whether they are going to be able to 
hold on to their children or not. The angst that I feel in my heart 
even thinking about having to make a choice like that. There is no one 
that should have to make that choice. And that the government, their 
own government, would deprive them of the ability to care for their 
kids is just mind-boggling.
  Ms. CLARKE. Would the gentlewoman yield a moment? Just think about 
the mobility of a family that is unable to have their child care 
subsidized, the time that it will take for them to be able to gain firm 
footing once their children now get into public schools. And then the 
challenges they may face with learning deficits, quite frankly, because 
there are children of means who are being given an opportunity to be in 
stimulating learning environments when some working class parents just 
can't afford it. And without the support that we can give, we are 
really handicapping. We are really tying the arms of these families and 
these communities. And we know that if we just give people a chance in 
this society, they can make the best of it. And that can make a 
difference from one generation to the next.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Absolutely. And let's show people what we 
mean. And I know you have seen this information before. What we are 
talking about, when you describe the difference between a parent who 
can't decide to bring their child to a child care program because there 
is no money, they can't afford to pay for it, the Federal Government is 
slashing the funding for it so they don't have a slot funded for their 
child, even though they are eligible, what happens, like you said, is 
that you have the parents who can afford it when those kids get to 
public school, they have already been through several years of 
prekindergarten, and they arrive at school and start kindergarten at 5 
years old ready to learn, which is what the goal of Head Start and 
these child care programs is. The Federal funding that we provide is 
designed to make sure those children get to school ready to learn.
  And this is the correlation of funding from the Federal Government 
for child care and Head Start and brain development. We are literally 
funding it in the opposite direction from the way the brain grows and 
develops and when we provide funding. So here is when you have the most 
brain growth, and the most rapid brain growth and the most important 
point in a child's life for that brain growth, and we are funding it 
the most when we are well beyond the points that the child's brain 
growth has not ceased, but certainly when it has slowed.
  This chart should be inversed. We should be funding the highest 
percentage when the child's brain is developing at its earliest point 
between birth and 5 years old. But we are doing the opposite. It makes 
absolutely no sense. It really boggles my mind.
  And that hurts. We are talking about real kids. I brought pictures of 
real children who are impacted by these decisions because I think we 
have to remember what we are talking about here. So often when we have 
discussions on the floor here, it becomes easy to become desensitized 
to the fact that we are talking about real people. These are real 
children who are being cared for. And I am going to tell their story in 
a little bit. But look at these beautiful children. And this is their 
caregiver. And I'm going to tell their story in a couple of minutes. 
But I just don't think it can be forgotten that every funding cut, 
every decision we make like this affects one of these precious babies. 
And I just can't even imagine how there is no heart in the White House. 
Although I shouldn't be shocked after almost 8 years of this 
administration. It is just unbelievable. We have got to make sure, and 
the reason that we are here tonight during the Week of the Young Child, 
is we have to make sure that we push in the next fiscal year, in fiscal 
year 2009, for an increase in Child Care and Development Block Grant 
funding the Head Start program. And Democrats have been fighting to 
make sure that we do that. We passed a wonderful Head Start bill. We 
have got to make sure that we reverse the lost ground that has occurred 
after 7 years of flat funding from this administration.
  Ms. CLARKE. Would the gentlewoman yield a moment? It is an 
imperative. As I have said, since I've been on the Hill these past 15 
months and have looked just about every crisis in the eye from mortgage 
foreclosure to the war in Iraq to you name it, education, health care, 
it all points back to the fact that we are at a specific juncture in 
our Nation's history that requires courage. And that means the courage 
to make the proper investments for the growth and development of our 
Nation.
  There is no more worthy an investment for us to make than in these 
children, than our children, our Nation's children. They will be 
inheriting from us a millstone around their ankles if we don't do right 
by them today.
  With the challenges that we are facing in terms of the debt build-up 
in this Nation, it is going to take a whole group of really smart 
people, really intelligent folk, who use the ingenuity of who we are as 
Americans to take us to the next level. That investment starts now. You 
can't invest it in me. It's too late for me. The investment is in our 
children.
  So I thank the gentlelady again. This is a very important special 
order that we are here, we are at the advent of the Week of the Young 
Child and that we are speaking out for those families that don't have a 
voice here, that don't have the high-paid lobbyists, that are really 
working every day, and they come home, they hug their babies and they 
just want an opportunity for that baby to succeed.
  In many instances, those children are struggling like salmon swimming 
upstream in environments that are less than wholesome. And were they to 
be in an early childhood education setting, they would be sure to get a 
nutritious meal every day. They would have a loving caregiver that also 
is there to stimulate the growth of the intellect and the brain. And 
that is why these dollars that are requested, which are really not 
breaking the bank by any means, are so critical and can reap such 
dividends in the long run if we do right by them today.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. It is the difference, literally, it's like 
when a baby is born, particularly to a working family that is not 
rolling in cash, that is literally struggling to put together their 
paychecks every month to meet their family's needs, it's like that 
baby's life begins on a crossroads. And we hold the key to which path 
they will end up on.
  If we decide, like this administration, like the Bush administration 
has consistently decided during their time in office to cut the funding 
for child care, subsidized child care and for Head Start, then we are, 
not always, because there are kids that avoid it, but we are making it 
much more likely that the path that those kids travel down end up 
sending them more likely into a life of crime, potentially into an 
inability or decision not to graduate from high school. They end up 
dropping out. They make the wrong choices because they don't learn at 
the earliest stage how to make the right choices. They don't learn the 
basics. They don't have all the tools that they need to draw upon

[[Page 5908]]

to be strong, to deal with life's challenges. This is not exaggeration. 
This is real.
  Ms. CLARKE. The achievement gap is real. It is well-documented. And 
if these children had that Head Start, had the early childhood 
education, it closes the achievement gap by leaps and bounds. The clock 
to education doesn't start when we slide that child into the 
kindergarten door. There is so much more that goes into it. And I am a 
witness to what early childhood education can do. I have seen it for 
generations in New York, for working-class parents, parents that by no 
means are wealthy, but we had a period of time in our city's history 
where we understood that early childhood education was a critical 
component to not only helping working families but to giving those 
children that educational boost, that stimulating environment, that 
healthy and wholesome environment while their parents were at work.
  There is nothing worse than a parent that has to worry about their 
child. We hear these horrible stories about people who go to work and 
leave their child in a car, or worse leave it with a younger child that 
is then caught in a situation where harm comes to them. We need to be 
able to allay those types of fears for parents. And this is a win-win-
win scenario, our investment in Head Start and Child Care and 
Development Block Grants. It's a win-win-win scenario.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. It is. And it's hard to imagine what's more 
important. Should we continue to spend $14 million an hour in Iraq? 
Fourteen million dollars an hour is what we are spending in Iraq. Yet 
we can't come up with the funding that we need to make sure that all 
the kids in this country that are eligible for Head Start and for 
subsidized child care can actually go.
  Ms. CLARKE. Or gentlelady, how about $110,000 a year for a child in 
juvenile detention?
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. It is unbelievable. So we are choosing to lock 
kids like that up and spend more money, much more money, than we would 
spend on them up front to make sure that they get the education and the 
early start and the building blocks for success that are so much less 
expensive, but are also just the right thing to do. But for the 
accident of your birth you should not be in a situation where some kids 
are getting those basics and other kids are thrown to the wolves. We 
have these programs so that we can equalize the situation in life for 
Americans.
  Look, we live in a capitalistic society. And that is absolutely the 
economy that we all support and know and revere. And it has served us 
well through more than 200 years. But because we live in a capitalistic 
society, it does not mean that we should be throwing our children, our 
most vulnerable, to the wolves but for the accident of their birth.
  Ms. CLARKE. What it is is the coming of age. Our economy is evolving 
in ways that generations before us could have never imagined. That 
means that we have to redouble our efforts when it comes to the 
education of our young. We have to come up with the winning strategies 
for Americans to be able to move our Nation forward. This is the way to 
go. This is the way to go.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. You're absolutely right. I want to tell 
another story and highlight the impact on another family. We talked 
about the Head Start program. There are also child care providers who 
provide wonderful service in those subsidized child care programs. And 
we have had frozen Child Care and Development Block Grant funding that 
has led to stagnant and even decreasing reimbursement rates for 
providers who care for those children receiving subsidies.
  In 2006, only nine States paid reimbursement rates that were on par 
with what the Federal Government recommends. And one of those results 
is there's an alarming 35 percent turnover rate for child care 
providers because they can't afford to continue to work in that field.
  And I want to tell the story of a young woman named Kelly Matthews. 
Kelly is a child care provider in Iowa City, Iowa. I want to read you 
Kelly's story in her own words, because this is how she described her 
situation.
  She said, ``You and I share something important in common. We both go 
to work each day with a grounded, deeply held belief that we do our 
chosen work for one very simple reason, to change the world.''
  And I know how many times I have said that the reason I do this job 
is to make the world a better place and to change the world. Kelly is 
right here with her kids in her program.
  She said, ``I don't work in the Halls of Congress, but in my home, 
caring for children in my Child Development Home in Iowa City. What 
other reason, aside from wishing to impact the future, could motivate 
someone to take on a job with modest pay, no benefits and no paid time 
off? This isn't about a `job' for me. This is my profession, my chosen 
life's work. And it is an amazing gift I am given each day to partner 
with the families I serve.

                              {time}  2145

  ``I have built my childcare program around the ideas of community, 
caring for each other, and falling in love with learning. I love this 
work because I have carefully crafted a program where kids succeed in 
all these areas in amazing ways: When Claire (at 18 months) already 
knows how to comfort a friend, when Trae (at 5 years old) can easily 
count and set out the right number of plates for his friends at the 
lunch table, when Lexi (at 3 years old) works hard to write the names 
of the members of her family, when Gus (at 3 years old) knows how to 
care for his things and the things that belong to others, or when two 
toddlers are already capable of working out a conflict in a peaceful 
way without an adult's intervention,'' what I wouldn't give for that in 
my house, ``I know these children will be ready, not only for school, 
but just as importantly, for life. They will grow into adults that know 
how to take responsibility for themselves and how to care for others, 
how to problem solve and be creative in their endeavors, how to keep on 
trying, even when it is tricky.''
  She said, ``I take this work seriously. Approximately 50 hours a week 
of my time with children in my home, plus all the additional hours of 
paperwork, supply shopping, continuing education, networking with my 
colleagues, and add to that total, developing and presenting hours of 
training to inspire other family childcare providers to constantly 
improve themselves and their programs. But for those of us committed to 
our professions and our vision of an inspired word, it is all in a 
day's work, isn't it?''
  That is what Kelly Matthews, this wonderful woman with all her 
children in her program around her, had to say about her work, and it 
is the reason that we are standing here on the floor tonight at the 
beginning of the Week of the Young Child.
  I am so pleased that you have been able to join me, Ms. Clarke, and I 
turn it over to you to close us out.
  Ms. CLARKE. I think that your daycare provider has really said it 
all. I don't think there is a dollar value that can you truly put on 
the work that these women and men do with our youngest, most vulnerable 
ones. And they make that sacrifice. Wouldn't it be awesome if they were 
rewarded and our communities were rewarded and our families were 
rewarded with a government that responded and really put the funding in 
place, to not only raise the level, but to get rid of all of those 
waiting lists that we see. What a difference that would make in every 
one of our communities around this Nation.
  Thank you very much for your commitment.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you to the gentlewoman from New York.
  Mr. Speaker, we think we have made a very strong case tonight at the 
beginning of the Week of the Young Child to make sure that there is a 
mandate for this Congress to increase the funding for Head Start, 
increase the funding for Child Care and Development Block Grants, and 
make sure that when those little babies are put on the crossroads of 
the path of their life, that we send them strongly down the right path 
so

[[Page 5909]]

that they can have the best life that they can possibly have.
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman Wasserman 
Schultz, for organizing this Special Order.
  Improved funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and 
Head Start are integral to every child having the opportunity to 
succeed in school and in life.
  The Child Care and Development Block Grant enables 1.8 million 
children from more than 1 million families to receive child care and 
provides essential resources to help states improve the quality of that 
care. Reliable, high-quality child care supports parents' productive 
employment and helps children enter school ready to learn.
  Head Start is our country's model for a successful comprehensive 
early learning program for low-income children. It combines early 
education, health care, social services, and nutrition services with a 
strong focus on parent involvement and support and builds on the 
strengths of local communities.
  The bipartisan 2007 Head Start reauthorization, which I was proud to 
have introduced, included many positive provisions that will move the 
program forward by expanding access and enhancing quality. But, 
increased investment is critical to meeting those goals.
  More than 100 of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, recently 
joined me to urge the Appropriations Committee to reverse the 
Administration's funding policies that have led to thousands fewer 
children attending Head Start than in 2002 and put 200,000 children at 
risk of losing child care assistance by 2009 without increased funding.
  Whether or not America's most vulnerable young children and their 
families will reach their potential depends in large part on our 
investment in these programs.
  Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of an important 
program to my district and my state which has been consistently flat 
funded for the past seven years: the Head Start program. As you know, 
Head Start is an early childhood program with a proven track record of 
providing comprehensive developmental, educational, health, 
nutritional, and social services to low-income preschool children and 
their families, giving them the tools they need to succeed. By 
emphasizing parental involvement, Head Start also benefits the entire 
family and the broader community. For decades, Head Start has served 
thousands low-income children and their families in Utah, ensuring that 
they are educationally, socially and medically ready for school.
  I have always been a strong supporter of Head Start. After years of 
stalemate on proposed changes to the program, I was pleased to vote for 
a reauthorization this May, and again in final passage this November, 
that includes expanded coverage for low-income children, increased 
funding for teacher and staff salaries and professional development, 
and strong accountability measures to better ensure that Head Start 
funds are used appropriately and efficiently. This bill, HR 1429, was 
signed into law by the President on December 12, 2007.
  I have appreciated working with countless Utah parents, teachers, and 
administrators on the importance of the program but also on ways to 
make it stronger and meet the needs of the community. These 
perspectives and stories have enhanced my understanding of the valuable 
role Head Start plays in the lives of disadvantaged children. I believe 
that Head Start is a program with a long-term record of success with 
enrollment correlating to IQ gains, improved high school graduation 
rates and higher achievement in writing, vocabulary and social skills.
  I applaud my colleague, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, for 
calling attention to this important program.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, it is said that we should judge a 
society by how it cares for its young, its old, and those who have 
difficulty caring for themselves. We have done much in the United 
States to care for our young citizens, but justice calls on us to do 
much more.
  We know that, from 2000 to 2006, poverty increased by 10.7 percent, 
leaving 12.8 million children living in poverty. We know that one in 
three black children and one in four Latino children lives in poverty. 
We know that almost 12 million children under the age of five 
participate in some type of regular child care weekly. And we know that 
research demonstrates that high quality, comprehensive educational care 
for infants and toddlers can eliminate the achievement gap that exists 
between middle class and lower-income children.
  Together these facts highlight that Federal support for quality care 
in the earliest years via Head Start and CCDBG is critical to help 
young children from low-income families arrive at kindergarten ready to 
learn and obtain a strong foundation for success in life. Despite the 
importance of early childhood care and education, Federal funding for 
these programs continues to lose ground. With nearly flat funding over 
the last several years, Head Start is serving fewer children than it 
did in 2002. Despite an increase in the percentage of children under 
six with only working parents, Federal funding for the Child Care 
Development Block Grant has been effectively frozen since 2001.
  These cuts affect Chicago and Illinois in very real, negative ways. 
In Chicago, just under 41,000 families with children under 5 live under 
the poverty line, yet only 17,000 of these children are served by 
Chicago Head Start. In Illinois, CCDBG served an average of 82,200 
children in 2006, which is 20,000 fewer than it did just five years 
ago.
  As policymakers, we should invest in families and children by 
bringing funding for Head Start, Early Head Start and the Child Care 
and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) at least up to the inflation-
adjusted levels at which they were funded in 2002. History will judge 
us harshly if we withhold key resources that we know can provide 
essential supports for our youngest citizens. During this Week of the 
Child, I urge my colleagues to reverse this trend and invest in 
children.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
express my strong support for two essential programs for our children 
and families--Child Care and Development Block Grants (CCDBG) and Head 
Start.
  We know that early investments in our children pay off in the long 
run. Early childhood education programs increase school readiness and 
achievement, and improve cognitive and social skills needed for 
academic success. Investing in Head Start is a good investment, as for 
every $1 spent we save nearly $9. These benefits include less welfare 
dependency, lower crime rates, and a reduction in grade repetition and 
special education services.
  CCDBG programs also offer a life line for many low income families. 
By offering subsidies for quality child care parents have broader 
employment opportunities which result in higher incomes, less turnover, 
and increased productivity. In addition, these funds are improving the 
quality, as well as the amount of child care available, to low income 
families.
  In Texas, there are nearly 90,000 children enrolled in Head Start. 
Current proposed funding levels for Head Start in the FY 2009 
Presidential Budget will leave this program in peril. If enacted at the 
President's requested level, 14,000 fewer children will be able to be 
enrolled in Head Start in 2009. Last year, Congress made many needed 
improvements to the Head Start program during reauthorization. Many of 
these improvements will not be enacted without a significant increase 
in funding.
  CCDBG faces similar prospects if there is not an increase in funding. 
Wait lists for CCDBG programs continue to rise. In Texas, there are 
currently 15,000 children on a waitlist for child care assistance. If 
funding continues at current levels 300,000 fewer children nationally 
will receive child care assistance by 2010. Without this much needed 
assistance, parents will be forced to make increasingly difficult 
choices. Many will be forced into debt, will choose lower-quality child 
care, or end up back on welfare rolls.
  Mr. Speaker, we must increase the resources to these programs. Flat 
funding for CCDBG and near-flat funding for Head Start over the past 
decade has left hundreds of thousands of children without needed 
assistance. Current economic conditions have hit many of our low income 
families the hardest. Now, more than ever additional assistance is 
needed. I strongly encourage an increase in funding for these essential 
programs.
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, today, in California, 1.7 million children 
under age six require childcare because of working parents. Of these, 
nearly 200,000 are served in local programs that receive money from 
Child Care and Development Block Grants.
  Mr. Speaker, you and I know that in the San Francisco Bay Area, most 
families rely on a minimum of two incomes just to make ends meet. In a 
time of rising gas and food prices and uncertain economic prospects, 
many are forced to take on additional jobs just to keep up.
  Yet, the President's budget, for the sixth straight year, does not 
provide enough just to maintain the current level of services. In fact, 
the budget for Child Care and Development Block Grants falls $41 
million short and hasn't been adjusted for inflation since 2003.
  Mr. Speaker, like most states, California can illafford to pick up 
the slack, which in 2009 will total over four and half million dollars. 
Since 2002, our state has been on the hook for $52.7 million.
  Meanwhile, the president has provided just a 2.1 percent increase for 
Head Start, a program widely acknowledged as one of the most

[[Page 5910]]

successful in the federal government. This won't even keep pace with 
inflation and falls woefully short of what is needed to catch up to the 
more than $110 million in funding that California has lost relative to 
Fiscal Year 2002 funding.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the approximately 130,000 California 
children registered in Head Start and the benefit that early childhood 
education provides to our nation, I urge the Congress and President 
Bush to do all we can to adequately provide for this most important 
resource.
  Mrs. BOYDA of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, on February 5, 2008 the President 
sent Congress his proposed budget. This budget is out of touch with the 
values of the good people who reside in the Second District of Kansas. 
I am deeply concerned about the President's funding cuts in early 
childhood education.
  Head Start is a successful national school readiness program. It 
provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition and parent 
involvement services to low-income children and their families. 
Unfortunately, Head Start has experienced a 12 percent decline in 
funding from Fiscal Year 2002 through Fiscal Year 2009. These recent 
cuts have left individual Head Start programs strapped for funding and 
only able to serve about 40 percent of the eligible population of 
children and families. Without increased funding, this percentage will 
continue to decrease due to the reality that more families are having 
difficulty making ends meet. For Kansas, this means putting in jeopardy 
the over 50,000 children who currently use these services. I joined 
with my colleagues in sending letters to the Budget Committee and the 
Appropriations Committee asking them to make funding for Head Start a 
priority and hope we will soon vote to increase funds for Head Start.
  The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program provides 
funding for child care for low income families. Child care costs 
continue to skyrocket--Kansas families pay an average of about $9,000 a 
year for an infant in full-time center care. Yet federal support for 
affordable child care hasn't kept pace. Because of funding shortfalls, 
only about one in seven children eligible for federal assistance 
actually receives it. Over the last six years about 150,000 children 
lost child care due to CCDBG funding shortfalls. Congress must renew 
its commitment to making sure our children--our future--aren't the ones 
bearing the burden of tight financial times. Kansans rely on CCDBG--in 
2005, 18,800 Kansas children were served by the CCDBG. We need to make 
sure that Kansas' working parents have access to low-cost, high-quality 
child care so they can continue working and supporting their family. I 
joined in sending a letter to the Appropriations Committee asking them 
to support funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant 
(CCDBG) program and hope to vote for an increase in funding this year.
  My fellow colleagues, it is time that we have a frank and open 
conversation with the American people. The decisions that this Congress 
is going to have to make for this next fiscal year are going to be 
tough, but they must be done. Over the next months, we must work 
together to restore fiscal responsibility and, at the same time, make 
sure we deliver services to our constituents. Being fiscally 
responsible does not mean that we can forget about the importance of 
early childhood education. Programs like Head Start and CCDBG are 
important for everyone involved: they enable lower income families to 
work and improve their economic situation; they make sure that 
dedicated public servants, like child care providers, receive the 
compensation they deserve; and they ensure that all children get the 
social and educational start that will serve them throughout their 
lives.
  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, let me take this means to add my voice of 
support to the Head Start program. As you know, since the program began 
more than 40 years ago, it has served millions of low-income children 
and their families across the United States.
  Over the years, I have had the opportunity to visit Head Start 
centers across Missouri's 4th Congressional District, which I have the 
honor to represent in Congress. I am always impressed by the dedicated 
staff who do so many good things to help prepare the children for their 
school careers. Every child in America has the right to a good start in 
life. It can make all the difference in their future. By partnering 
with parents to promote early childhood development, which is so 
critical, Head Start helps make sure that those futures are not 
jeopardized on the basis of a family's income.
  This year, I have continued my strong support for Head Start funding 
and will work with my colleagues in the days ahead to see that this 
vital program's future is secure. Children truly are the hope of our 
Nation. They will be the leaders of tomorrow, and we owe it to them to 
see they have every opportunity to succeed.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much to the 
Speaker, and we yield back the balance of our time.

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