Date: 2007-05-02
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my friend. the gentlewoman from Florida for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. It is very important for the future of our children that they develop the skills and receive the education necessary to make them a uccess later in life. Unfortunately. many children begin their education without the proper foundation. putting them at a disadvantage that has longterm effects on their education. We must do all we can so that lowincome children do not begin their education at a disadvantage. That is why the Head Start program was created. In order to give children the proper foundation they need to begin their education. the Head Start program provides comprehensive early childhood education development .services. These services .include child development. educational. health. nutritional. social and -other activities. These services prepare children to enter kindergarten and for their continued educational success. In fiscal year 2005. the Head Start program provided developmental services to over 900.000 children. 35.000 of them in my State of Florida. Most of the children that receive the critical developmental skills offered by the Head Start program come from lowincome families. and at Head Start they receive the early educational foundation to do well in their later education and hopefully break. the chain of poverty. The underlying legislation being brought to the floor today builds on the success of the program and improves its weaknesses. It authorizes over $7 billion for fiscal year 2008. strengthens Head Starts academic .standards by emphasizing cognitive development and topics critical to school readiness. It is important that the children in Head Start receive the best education possible. There are. Mr. Speaker. several provisions in the underlying legislation that I believe will help with this goal. First. the bill seeks to ensure that a greater number of Head Start teachers are better trained and educated in early childhood development. particularly in fundamental skills such as language. prereading and premathematics. within 2 years. Competition encourages better quality. As recommended by a 2005 GAO study. the bill seeks to increase competition among Head Start grantees to help weed out poor performers and offer stronger programs. The bill also seeks greater transparency and disclosure regarding how Head Start funds are spent. This will help to fight financial abuse and further ensure that Federal Head Start funds reach the disadvantaged children that they are meant to serve. Yesterday. in the Rules Committee. Mr. Speaker. Resident Commissioner FORTURO offered an amendment to this legislation to allow religious organizations to not ignore religion in their hiring practices. The provision was included in previous Head Start reauthorization bills. However. the majority on the Rules Committee blocked that amendment from consideration today by the full House. Head Start has a proud history of inclusion of faithbased organizations. Approximately 80 grantees have religious affiliations. Without the Fortufio amendment. faithbased Head Start grantees may decide to stop offering Head Start programs. That would hurt the children in those programs. In 2004. the Department of Health and Human Services issued regulations requiring any organization that receives direct financial assistance from the Department. such as -Head Start. to not engage in inherently religious activities such as worship. religious instruction or proselytizing as part of the program or services funded by HHS. So objections to the Fortufio amendment. in my opinion. are.unfounded. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.