Date: 2008-04-14
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

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 cant get it because were 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." thats what it is all about. I remember being pregnant with my twins and people telling me throughout my pregnancy. Oh. DEBBIE. youre life is going to change. Just wait. Youre 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 its going to be like. Well. you cant imagine. You cant imagine what its going to be like until you have them. And thats what everybody tells you. You cant imagine that you could care and love something more than when you give birth to your children. And you would do anything to mak6 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 highquality child care situation so that they dont 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. So its not just Florida. Its 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 preK program funded by the lottery. which is supposed to provide a preK 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 dont have access to child care who are eligible. [] 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 dont 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 mindboggling.