gentleman correct the house is not in order specially in this area right here agrees that it has been far too long since we have authorized the head start act head start has served millions of our most vulnerable children and families well for forty two years more recently early head start has done the same for infants and toddlers these are our country's premier early childhood programs mr speaker headstart works and this bill will make it work even better nothing is more critical to a child's success than a great teacher and this bill would ensure that by twenty thirteen half of headstart teachers nationwide would have bachelor's degrees this will improve professional development so that teachers can keep up with the best practices in early childhood education to build increases funding for early head start so that children receive comprehensive services during the most critical stages of brain development mr speaker our predecessors forty two years ago initiated headstart even before we realized as we do now today that early and regular stimulation was critical to the very physical development of the brain head start requires the secretary to update early learning standards using the best science and puts an end the other devised national reporting system it authorizes significant increases in resources so that we can expand access and i want to work with our friends on the appropriations committee  just that enhanced as the quality of head start boards while maintaining a shared governance structure that empowers parents and especially important to me that a bill for prioritize significant resources for indian and migrant and seasonal add start programs well to expand existing programs and create new programs so these children whose communities face such terrific challenges can grow up to help their communities overcome those challenges in closing mr speaker i want to thank you chairman miller and senator kennedy senator d in education when we work in a bipartisan way it's been my pleasure through the years has the advantage of working with mr mckeon from california we're going to recommit ourselves to education its becoming law very soon and i be sure the balance of my time and then reserves gentlemen from california to speak radio myself have signed as i may consume gentleman is recognized since hundred sixty five the head start program has been instrumental in our efforts to close the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers this program provides help developmental and educational services to low income and at risk children before they enroll in school in order to help close the readiness gap headstart helps establish a foundation for these children's future success this conference report is a product of a bipartisan collaboration and compromise i'd like to thank chairman miller along with mr castle and mr kildee and i appreciate mr kilties words and i appreciate the opportunity i've had to get to know him and work with him closely over the years i thank them for their work to strengthen and improve headstart i'd also like to acknowledge the staff on both sides for their instrumental role in developing this legislation their work was critical to producing such a strong widely supported measure on my staff i'd like to recognize kiersten duncan along with susan ross and james version ron for their tireless efforts on this legislation studies have shown that children enrolled in head start do make some progress we also know that even greater results are possible with this in mind the improving head start for school readiness act will strengthen head start academic standards by emphasizing cognitive development and the results of scientifically valid research in topics critical to children school readiness the conference report will improve teacher quality by ensuring a greater number of head start teachers have degrees and are adequately trained in early childhood development particularly in teaching the fundamentals despite the many successes of the head start program its reputation has unfortunately been marred in recent years by instances of financial abuse and mismanagement in communities across the country we've heard reports of taxpayer dollars being squandered a march two thousand and five report from the government accountability office warned the financial control system and the head start program is flawed and failing to prevent multimillion dollar financial abuses that cheat poor children tax payers and law abiding headstart operators this conference report builds on efforts of republicans and one hundred ninth congress to address weaknesses in the headstart financial control system in order to better protect taxpayers and ensure funds are being used to help prepare disadvantaged children for school i'm particularly pleased that the conference report includes strong protections to ensure headstart dollars are not used to pay excess of salaries to program executives the house voted unanimously last week to instruct conferees to include clear unambiguous protections in this area thanks to that vote we were able to visit the negotiations and agree that even stronger language mr speaker the improving head start for school readiness act is a solid reauthorization bill built on bipartisan collaboration headstart is a good program capable of achieving even greater results and the bill before us will help achieve that goal i support passage of this conference report so we can send the bill to the president with that i reserve the balance of my time continued success will not be ensured unless we equip the leaders of tomorrow with the tools i need today this means cultivating not just the most privileged and brightest students but the students who grow up with disadvantages we must nurtured the  potential of all our children from the very beginning of their lives we don't have one mind to waste or one citizen to waste we need everyone to have the greatest ability and preparation to live productive meaningful lives in our society for a million students headstart is the answer for those who work hard but remain stuck just above the poverty level the reauthorization of this program will give their children a sansa a chance to soar i'm proud to say that just as we did by increasing the minimum wage doubling college assistance and providing health care to uninsured children this congress continues to put working families first with nine in ten americans reporting no increase in income the last six years cynicism has replaced hope for too many we are in a position to restore faith in the future and as we pass the reins of our nation to future generations we must invest in that future by guaranteeing every child a chance to succeed i know that in my hometown of louisville kentucky thousands and thousands of young children have gotten adequate preparation for schooling that they might not otherwise have gotten because of the wonderful training they received in headstart it is not just a head start it is a very strong foundation to us the key to success in education and success in whatever careers our young children may select so i'm proud to stand here in the house of representatives the people's house and urge my colleagues to support a program which will help ensure that the people we represent are able to enjoy the prosperity and the happiness that our founding fathers hoped they would have with that i urge my colleagues to join me  supporting head start and begin restoring faith in the future for millions of american families i yield back kelman u s bank gentleman from california i'm happy now to yield to the gentleman from delaware mr nine improving headstart for school redness act will improve its art by emphasizing that every child regardless of his or her economic status should have the best possible chance to succeed as this hurricane status report is a product of bipartisan collaboration and compromise and i would also like to thank god chairman miller along with mr kill the mr mccann as well as the committee staff for their work on the head start i see as well as we in the room i worked with her on this issue of before to and thank her this legislation builds upon efforts made in the past several congresses to address weaknesses in the head start program and approves of one language contained in the bill to help make the program even stronger specifically this report preserves and enhances the vital role of parents and ensuring the success of head start by seventeen both a governing body and a policy council each with specific detail responsibilities this conference report also maintains the current income eligibility requirement to provide services to those who need them the most additionally this legislation ensures the curriculum and other materials used in headstart classrooms are based on the principles of scientific research and scientifically valid research equally important it's conference agreement ensures that a greater number of head start teachers are adequately trained and educated in early childhood development that applies early head start as well finally consistent with the motion of struct i introduced last week this conference agreement limits the compensation of a head start employee to executive level to that an assistant secretary currently one hundred sixty eight thousand dollars which is fake or the improving head start preschool redness act builds upon the success of the head start program it will assist in having the program achieve even greater results i urge my colleagues to support the to speak and i want to thank the gentleman from michigan for yield in and i also want to commend him for introduce in this legislation h r fourteen twenty nine the headstart for school residents act i applaud the leaders in both chambers for crafting such a strong bill that builds on the accomplishments of headstart and promotes the success of young children it is clear from this product that you and your staff so toiled long and hard to strengthen the quality of the head start program and i say to you well done for most let me thank you for maintaining the role of parents in governing head start for more than forty years one of the most unique and important aspects of the head start program has been its emphasis on parental involvement i work actively with mr souder and mr payne along with eighty other members of the house to advocate for maintaining this home are of equal responsibility for parents in govern in headstart i'm also pleased that the bill strikes a balance between the house and senate versions on the issue of progress algy building in high cost of living areas such as chicago low income families can lose access to this critical child development program not due to lack of need but because we fail to adequately consider the cost of living when calculating the poverty level the conference report grants local programs flexibility and open in the eligible a d while also requiring them to demonstrate the need and i am especially grateful that the final report includes so many issues near and dear to me such as recruiting minority male teachers emphasizing children's social and emotional wellbeing in recognition of the expanded role of grandparents and kinship caregivers in children's lives incorporate in the best practices from the field of home visitation into the early head start program an increase in funds for salaries and education for head start teachers finally in addition  pleased that this bipartisan bill preserves the anti discrimination history of head start advocated so ardently by the head start and religious communities federal funds are not meant to support discrimination  and i applaud the members on both sides for maintaining this fundamental commitment to justice and fairness and so i thank you so much mr speaker this bill to expand access improves teacher quality expands yelled at this time the gentleman from indiana member of the committee mr souter five minutes chairman from indiana is recognized for five minutes i thank our distinguished ranking member and i'm very supportive of this bill by i want to share some vague and comfortability with what i think is potentially happening here and head start and i think it's very important to clarify for this administration and for future administrations what this bill is intended to do and not intended to do from the time the republicans took over in congress i remember then subcommittee chairman frank riggs had a number of hearings talking about the lack of an academic focus to head start it was a big debate about what the original role was but it was supposed to certainly prepare kids who didn't have the same opportunities for their ability to be prepared when they started school but there's a reason that head start while it was in the old department of h e w didn't move with the department of education and stayed with h h if it was intended to be merely another education program run by educational bureaucrats run the same way that every other education program was it was run it would be over in the department of education it wouldn't have been a grassroots head start program with parent councils that voted in participated and ran it it would have been part of a pre k program or a kindergarten program run by the public schools increasingly we see this pressure where the public schools are trying to take over the head start program the original origins of the head start movement came out of the sixty's sahlins key was an organizer in chicago the populous movement in the community action organizations led to a wave of saying we need programs where local low income groups are empowered to make their own decisions what this meant many times was it didn't exactly meet the professional goals or standards of where the public schools thought it should be necessarily where the professionals in washington  should be but they were engaged at the community level participating in a way that we have tried to reach in kindergarten in public schools forever we can't get low income parents engage in one of the biggest challenges we have it in the head start program they were engaged all over the country whether it was rural low income urban low income and then when you talk to those parents you say what's it like when you go to school where they don't really want to set the public school there they want to do fundraisers or they want to come to back to school night but participating in the governance participating in the organizations was different now we had wide support in this body ninety one members including mr davison and congresswoman loretta sanchez and maxine waters and myself and rick keller and  conservatives on the right who share the concept of empowerment and a number of the things none of us want a malfeasance in office or are for funding problems people learn accounting all of us would like to see more professional development all of us would like to see  quantify goals but in this drift towards trying to use the word professional all the time we need to make sure that that doesn't lead to an exclusionary concept that basically says ok now really the white middle class is going to take over and run this program like we would like run the fact is when you get groups of parents and give them votes they're going to make some judgment mistakes we need to have accountability i'm for accountability need to have measurement we need to empower those those people but this can't be a typical takeover project because i believe that the major reason head start has in fact worked in communities across the country is it's engaged with the people at the grassroots level and sometimes we use some of th language here what we really mean is we're going to take it away from these people because they're not quite as skilled that we don't quite trust her judgment as much and i appreciate that there was a strong compromise to the side of of parents in the conference committee that in fact the language keeping the voting powers to the parents is still there and it still says that when there any major decision they get a vote it still says that when there is a conflict with the the othe r people who are governing this it has to be resolved and and that there was a digital clause added that seem to potentially demean the parent councils where it says meaningful consultation and collaboration now that was originally going to replace the vote just like we saw in haydn's the high intensity drug trafficking areas where we tried to have the federal government initially in the proposal of the bush administration take voting power away from sheriffs and local police chiefs and use the same words meaningful consultation and collaboration that is usually a code word for we're going to pat you on the head of you to an occasional meeting but not put you in indecision power now what's great about this bill is we left the voting power there and no future administration or this one should mistake that the parents still have the voting power any meaningful decision they have a right to to have a vote and there has to be a resolution with the powers that consul's this additional language that was senate language is supplemental the gentleman uy the gentleman additional minute that i misread eyes for a minute that the senate language is supplemental and did not alter the policy consul of course parent council should be a meaningful consolidation collaboration not just as a quote term but real meaningful a consolidation that should also have the vote and i want to thank the leadership on the democratic side republican side in the house and senate and leaving the real vote to parents and it was a huge victory a grassroots bipartisan liberal conservative victory that should stand and hopefully will not be undone by administrative interpretation thank you very much your back to me is back to home and from michigan mr speaker i yield three minutes to the gentleman from new york  mr bishop joan from new york is recognized for three minutes thank you mr speaker mr speaker i rise today in strong support of h r fourteen twenty nine the improving head start act i represent part of suffolk county new york where over twenty headstart and three early headstart centers have been serving the community since one thousand nine hundred sixty six i'm also proud to say that my wife's first teaching job was as a headstart teacher and that she remains today an early childhood teacher parents teachers and many of my colleagues can all agree that head start is one of our nation's most prominent and successful early education program this bill continues to build on headstart success by ensuring that kids are prepared for school by improving teacher and craft classroom quality strengthening the focus on school readiness increasing accountability and boosting coordination research has found that children who attend head start enter school better prepared than their low income peers who do not attend the program and that children who do atten head start make significant learning gains if we are serious about achieving the goals set forth by n c l b than passing head start reauthorization is a down payment on achieving these goals i was proud to offer an amendment during the education labor committee's consideration of this bill to allow head start programs to use up to ten percent of their quality improvement funds for transportation costs this amendment was in response to concerns brought to me by my constituents that many headstart programs are being forced to choose between providing transportation to children or sacrificing the quality of their program this is a decision that no head start program should have to make with this amendment and with so many other worthwhile improvements to head start i strongly encourage my colleagues to support this balance t from california as one thousand minutes gentleman from michigan has eighteen and a half minutes chair when we were working on this and ranking member castle for a bipartisan success we can be proud of ourselves today anyone who's been around small children knows that they're sponges for information they just pop it up if you make it available to them and it's widely accepted that early childhood education is absolutely critical to their development and directly tied to their success when they get into school elementary school and the their ongoing future so getting children in a structured classroom environment early in their young lives provides a critical window of opportunity headstart provides our nation's poorest children with a quality start that puts them on a level playing field with others when they start elementary school no matter where child comes from or what his or her background is head start provides an equal opportunity to succeed by starting with a quality early childhood education it's why i'm glad i'm here today as we authorize head start reaffirming our commitment to this valuable program this bill expands access to have started improves teacher in classroom quality and it strengthens the services children and their families receive when they enroll in the program the administration however can and should do better when it comes to funding too many eligible children are still denied opportunity to participate and a head start program because there isn't enough funds well if this ministration wasn't spending five hundred billion dollars in iraq we wouldn't have the necessary resources to increase funding to allow for program improvement to give every child the headstart experience and to increase teacher quality and salary it just depends on where we put our priorities children are twenty five percent of our population mr speaker but are one hundred percent of our future we must provide them with the best possible beginning to their lives so mr speaker i look forward to working with my colleagues to increase our nation's commitment to education for all of our children and to ensuring that headstart remains the successful successful experience that it is i yield back and the woman you expect and then from california i'm happy deal that this time to the gentleman from and i think that the work that is represented in this reauthorization of head start is very important for our nation's children those of us who've worked in the area of education for a long time know that for low income children having some type of early childhood development is critically important to their success headstart amongst as among a number of programs bo public and private that are out there that supply this type of early childhood development for these children there were forms that are included in this bill i think are critically important so that head start can really be all that many of us want it to be there are some tremendous head start programs around the country i've visited a number of them but there are also some programs that that don't fulfill the promise that that we're making to parents and to their children of what this program could be about we all know that if we're serious about educating all of america's kids will never get there unless we find a way to help low income children get the things and get the development they need that many of us take for granted things that happen in our homes for those who have means that things that happen in our communities that these children are not exposed to and so to make sure that they do have an equal chance to get a good education that early childhood development for these three and four year olds is is very very important and i just want to congratulate my colleagues of for the bipartisan way this bill is come together and this is a great example of what congress can do in a bipartisan way when it chooses to i've been on the floor a lot this year being critical of the fact that there was some partisan bill on the floor of the house that was going nowhere but here's an example of members on both sides of the aisle working together for the interest of america's low very kind words of the republican leader and my former chair on your committee has worked through the years on this bill has been very very helpful you have any for the request for time  in support of a conference report that will make head start even stronger this program serves nearly a million underprivileged children and eases the divide between the haves and the have nots when it comes to preparing them for kindergarten the bipartisan support we've seen today should lend all of us confidence that the program will remain on a solid foundation for generations to come by reauthorizing headstart we're going to strengthen academic standards by emphasizing cognitive development using scientifically valid research improve teacher quality by ensuring more head start teachers have degrees and are adequately trained in early childhood development increase financial disclosure requirements by head start operators as custodians of federal head start grants and require local governance boards to actively oversee grantees these are common sense reforms that i wholeheartedly support and i would like to join the republican leader my other colleagues who have spoken here today and commenting on the bipartisanship with which this bill was brought to this point it's one that the president will sign  miller for her tireless work on this bill for the last five years mr speaker america can watch this congress at work today on this bill head start and feel good about this congress and that's very important this process of working head start as shown congress at its best and i think we owe that to the american people and we can feel a certain pride in having demonstrated to the american people what congress can do this is one of our our better days one of our better bills and we've had just spent a process that we enjoyed differences we resolve those differences we produced a very good bill and people do make a difference people in this congress makes me feel difference and i want to specially again commend my friend my colleague mr mckeon from report has ended without objection the previous question is ordered the question is on the adoption of the conference report all those in favor say aye those opposed say no in your opinion of the chair the eyes have it the conference  members will record their votes by elec tronics device pursuant to clause eight of route twenty this fifteen minute vote on adoption of the conference report will be followed by five minute votes on motions to suspend the rules with regards to h r thirty eight forty five and h r seven nineteen this will be a fifteen minute vote