IV 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 92 

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Project Head Start. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 5, 2015 

Ms. JACKSON LEE (for herself, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. MCDERMOTT, 

Mr. MEEKS, Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California, Ms. BORDALLO, Mrs. 

KIRKPATRICK, Mr. VELA, Mr. CA ́RDENAS, Ms. NORTON, Mr. JOHNSON

of Georgia, Ms. FUDGE, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. 

SERRANO, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, 

Mr. CONYERS, Mr. COHEN, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. 

HIMES, Mr. ELLISON, Ms. ADAMS, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. 

DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Ms. 

MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Ms. 

TITUS, Mrs. BUSTOS, Mr. SABLAN, Ms. HAHN, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. 

PLASKETT, Ms. SEWELL of Alabama, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. COSTA, Mr. 

FATTAH, Ms. MATSUI, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. CROWLEY, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. 

SIRES, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Ms. LEE, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. 

SLAUGHTER, Mr. TONKO, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. HIGGINS, Mr. NOLAN, Ms. TSONGAS, Ms. KAPTUR, Ms. BASS, Mr. 

LOEBSACK, Mr. KILMER, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. LOFGREN, 

Ms. BROWNLEY of California, Mr. LIEU of California, Mr. RICHMOND, 

Ms. KELLY of Illinois, and Mr. PETERS) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

RESOLUTION 

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Project Head Start. 

Whereas May 18, 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of Head 

Start, originally established as Project Head Start which 

was one of the signal achievements of the Great Society 


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and one of the boldest initiatives launched by the Nation 

in the War on Poverty; 

Whereas the aim of Project Head Start, as launched in 1965 

in the White House Rose Garden by President Lyndon 

Baines Johnson, was bold in its scope and design; 

Whereas in announcing the opening of a new front in the 

War on Poverty with the launch of Project Head Start, 

President Johnson stated that ‘‘We set out to make certain that poverty’s children would not be forevermore 

poverty’s captives.’’; 

Whereas Project Head Start was conceived as an 8-week 

summer program designed to provide preschool training 

not just to prepare 5- and 6-year-olds to enter regular 

school the following September, but also to give nearly 

half the preschool children living in poverty ‘‘a head start 

on their future’’; 

Whereas when launched in 1965 Project Head Start, administered by the Office of Economic Opportunity and wonderfully and skillfully led by its Director, Sargent Shriver, consisted of 2,500 projects covering 11,000 child development centers and serving about 530,000 poor children in every State of the Union; 

Whereas Project Head Start was launched not as a mere 

demonstration project limited to a handful of counties, 

but as a program national in scope serving every city, 

suburb, and rural area in the United States because 

President Johnson recognized that the bleak future waiting for children trapped in poverty was not a phenomenon concentrated in the inner-cities of the large 

urban cities of the North but could be found in every region in every State in the Nation; 


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Whereas in addition to providing pre-school training to prepare poor children to enter regular school and help put 

them on an even footing with their classmates as they 

enter school, Project Head Start sought to help children 

prepare for the challenges they will face in life and to 

combat poverty’s great weapons—hunger and malnutrition, illness and poor health, ignorance, and cultural deprivation; 

Whereas Project Head Start was from the start a national 

undertaking, utilizing the services of 41,000 professionals, including teachers, doctors, dentists, nurses, and 

nutritionists, employing more than 47,000 persons who 

were assisted by more than 500,000 volunteers; 

Whereas based on its initial 1965 success as a summer program, the following year, Project Head Start was funded 

as a primarily part-day, 9-month program, largely implemented through existing community action programs; 

Whereas in 1969 the administration of the program was vested in the newly created Office of Child Development in 

what was then the Department of Health, Education, and 

Welfare, the predecessor of the Department of Health 

and Human Services; 

Whereas in 1975 Head Start was established by Public Law 

93–644; 

Whereas in subsequent years, Head Start programs would be 

expanded to serve children with disabilities, Native Americans, and homeless children and to provide bilingual and 

bi-cultural migrant and seasonal programs serving 6,000 

children in 21 States; 

Whereas today Head Start programs serve nearly 1,000,000 

poor children, including 136,120 children with disabilVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:56 Feb 06, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR92.IH HR92

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ities, 15,632 pregnant women, and provide services to 

771,840 families; 

Whereas not only have Head Start programs been a great 

benefit to their direct beneficiaries, they have also provided substantial economic and social benefits to the Nation as a whole, yielding a rate of return on investment 

(ROI) of 7–9 percent and the direct creation of 236,591 

jobs paying an average annual salary of about $31,000 

for Head Start teachers with baccalaureate degrees; 

Whereas according to a report published in 2004, ‘‘Fight 

Crime: Invest In Kids’’, Head Start programs benefit society at large by reducing crime and its costs to crime 

victims because Head Start children are significantly less 

likely to have been charged with a crime than their siblings who did not participate in a Head Start program; 

Whereas another societal benefit of Head Start programs is 

the improved health of the children and families they 

serve, evidenced by mortality rates for 5- to 9-year-old 

children that are 33 to 50 percent lower than the rates 

for comparable children not enrolled in a Head Start program; 

Whereas Head Start children are less likely to fall victim to 

childhood obesity, and are at least 8 percent more likely 

to have had their immunizations, than children who did 

not attend preschool; 

Whereas Head Start children also are less likely to exhibit 

problem behavior, and studies have found that parents 

who participated in Head Start programs have greater 

quality of life satisfaction, increased confidence in coping 

skills, and decreased feelings of anxiety, depression, and 

sickness; 


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Whereas Head Start programs have been an unqualified success for the more than 31,000,000 children and parents 

they have served since the inception of Project Head 

Start in 1965; 

Whereas the record of the Head Start programs validates 

President Johnson’s assertion that Head Start was and 

is ‘‘one of the most constructive, and one of the most 

sensible, and also one of the most exciting programs that 

this Nation has ever undertaken’’; and 

Whereas the reward reaped by the Nation for this bold action 

is the collective service and contributions to the betterment of society made by the 31,000,000 children who 

have been served by Head Start programs over the past 

50 years: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) recognizes and honors the 50th anniversary 

3 of Project Head Start; 

4 (2) applauds President Lyndon Baines John5 son, all persons whose support and efforts led to the 

6 creation of Project Head Start in 1965, and the 

7 Head Start record of success over the ensuing half 

8 century; and 

9 (3) encourages all Americans to recognize and 

10 celebrate the important historical milestone of the 

11 creation of Head Start. 

Æ 


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