[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6562]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                     HEAD START'S 51ST ANNIVERSARY

  (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, today is the 51st 
anniversary of Head Start.
  Fifty-one years ago, in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson announced the 
groundbreaking program. In that year, a shy little girl and the 
daughter of Mexican immigrants enrolled in Head Start, and it changed 
her life. That little girl was me.
  In this Chamber, when we fiercely debate funding education, we are 
sometimes too removed from the reality of the everyday struggles that 
are facing America's children and just how wide that opportunity gap 
is.
  Even though I stand before you here as a Congresswoman, I also stand 
before you as a child of Head Start. Universal, early childhood 
education is the best investment we can make to close that education 
gap. I know this because I am living proof of it. Head Start was not 
merely something that helped me; it has helped 32 million children and 
their parents to prepare for school. It has prepared them for life.




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