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. HIG-
GINS, 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 resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Work-
force 
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 cer-
tain 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, admin-
istered by the Office of Economic Opportunity and won-
derfully and skillfully led by its Director, Sargent Shriv-
er, consisted of 2,500 projects covering 11,000 child de-
velopment centers and serving about 530,000 poor chil-
dren 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 wait-
ing for children trapped in poverty was not a phe-
nomenon concentrated in the inner-cities of the large 
urban cities of the North but could be found in every re-
gion in every State in the Nation; 
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Whereas in addition to providing pre-school training to pre-
pare 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 malnutri-
tion, illness and poor health, ignorance, and cultural dep-
rivation; 
Whereas Project Head Start was from the start a national 
undertaking, utilizing the services of 41,000 profes-
sionals, 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 pro-
gram, the following year, Project Head Start was funded 
as a primarily part-day, 9-month program, largely imple-
mented through existing community action programs; 
Whereas in 1969 the administration of the program was vest-
ed 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 Amer-
icans, 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 disabil-
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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 pro-
vided substantial economic and social benefits to the Na-
tion 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 so-
ciety 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 sib-
lings 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 pro-
gram; 
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 suc-
cess 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 better-
ment 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 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes and honors the 50th anniversary 
of Project Head Start; 
(2) applauds President Lyndon Baines John-
son, all persons whose support and efforts led to the 
creation of Project Head Start in 1965, and the 
Head Start record of success over the ensuing half 
century; and 
(3) encourages all Americans to recognize and 
celebrate the important historical milestone of the 
creation of Head Start. 
Æ 
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