Date: 2007-11-06
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I might consume. I want to begin by thanking Mr. KILDEE. Mr. McKEON and Mr. CASTLE and all of the members of the Education and Labor Committee for their hard work on this legislation. for all of their input and their suggestions. Mr. Speaker. this bill has been a very long time coming. It has been coming to the floor of this House since 2003. and we have an opportunity tonight to begin the final part of that process. which is to go to conference on this legislation. This is an important piece of legislation. and this is an important program. In fact. its this Nations premier program with respect to the early education and the development of our children in this country. and it has been for more than 40 years. It has served more than 20 million children and their families in that time. Head Start has remained during that time. and continues to remain today. as the cornerstone of this countrys efforts to close the achievement gap. to combat poverty. to provide all of its citizenswith an opportunity to thrive and to get parents more involved in the education of their children andto show them ways in which they can help in the development and the educational skills necessary for their children. Head Starts design has always been a sciencebased program. and this reauthorization builds on the strong foundation by. again. turning to the best science to renew and improve the Head Start program. Both Head Start and Early Head Start programs prepare our countrys most disadvantaged children to succeed in school and in life by addressing the needs of the whole child by providing services such as health and nutrition. in addition to the educational curriculum. because Head Start knows and discovered. and based upon fact. that the liealth and the nutritional wellbeing of these children determines the outcomes in the schools that they attend and the programs that they attend and in their participation. Recent findings from the congressionally mandated impact study found that in less than a school year. Head Start narrowed the achievement gap by 45 percent in the prereading skills and by 28 percent in prewriting skills of the children that attended the program. Head Start also works closely with parents. as Ipointed out. empowering them to understand what their involvement can mean to the success of their child and to the longterm educational outcomes of that child. This reauthorization will help more children arrive in kindergarten ready to succeed by improving program quality and expanding the access to more children. We will improve teacher and classroom quality by strengthening the Head Start standards and supporting the best practices in the classroom. We will end the inappropriate testing of 4yearolds that has been undertaken by the administration* in 2003 over the objections of hundreds of experts in child development and early education and over the bipartisan objection of many Members of Congress. We will better target available funds to the underserved communities and prioritize the expansion of early Head Start so that more of our Nations youngest children. will receive this program during the years when their brains are growing the fastest. We will strengthen program accountability at the Federal. regional. and local levels due to the changes made by the members of this committee and the operations of this program to assure that taxpayer dollars are being used wisely. In fact. in the example that was cited by Mr. McKEON. the senior Republican in the committee. is an example that was dealt with a number of years ago. hopefully by the administration but also in this legislation. Amendments that were offered in earlier iterations of this legislation are reoffered again as part of this bill as introduced by Mr. KILDEE. We have. I think. been very diligent in looking after that effort. I would hope that the administration. who has full authority on the oversight of the use of these funds. I wish they had been more diligent at that time. - . J. As the GAO found. they failed in their oversight responsibility of the disbursements of this fund. But that is the past. We are assuming that the administration takes the wise use of these funds. the proper use of these funds very seriously. and that they pursue those who choose to do otherwise with these funds. Head Start dollars are very precious in the budget of this Nation. They are very precious to the families of these children. to these children and to those who dedicated their lives to the educational improvement. to the healthy child development of each and every one of these children. We are not to be frivolous with those dollars. The minority has offered a motion to instruct. We agree with that motion. We think if there are differences. those differences are very narrow. They will be discussed. they will be voted upon in the conference committee. and that is our intent. We think that is consistent with the wording of the motion to instruct. When the proper time comes. we will urge Members to support that legislation. Given the scarcity of these dollars. the importance of these dollars and the effectiveness of these dollars. we have no alternative but to be very tough on the accountability sections for this program. This is a trust not only of the children in the care of the Head Start program for the children of this Nation. it is a trust. too. for the taxpayer dollars. because this is a. program that we have seen now over these 40 years has continued to receive bipartisan support. not only in the Congress but from every President bf the United States. Thats why this legislation is so important. Hopefully. with this conference committee. we will be able to report back to the House and to the Senate legislation that can be sent to the Presidents desk hopefully in the next week or 10 days. That is our goal. and I thank the gentleman for his motion to instruct. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.