Improving Head Start Act of 2007
Floor Speech
IMPROVING HEAD START ACT OF 2007
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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to support the Improving Head Start Act, a bill that will strengthen our nation's premiere early childhood education program and expand its services to thousands more children across the country.
Head Start has been improving lives and increasing opportunities for children and families for more than 40 years. With this important program, we teach our children that they can succeed, regardless of background or family income. We open doors to millions and prepare them for future success in school and careers.
This bill provides much-needed amendments to Head Start that will improve workforce quality by increasing funding for staff salaries and professional development, and enhance coordination between early education and primary schools. It also strengthens standards and accountability to ensure that our children are getting the best quality care and education.
I am also pleased that this House defeated a divisive and misguided motion that would, for the first time, legitimize publicly funded religious discrimination in the Head Start program. It would have given taxpayer money to Head Start centers and allow those centers to exclude taxpayers from jobs solely on the basis of their religious beliefs. It would be a green light for religious bigotry. Its passage would have been bad for education and bad for religion and I joined the National Head Start Association, the Interfaith Alliance, and countless other secular and religious advocates of the Head Start Program in opposing it. I am glad that we have a clean bill to pass today.
I also urge my colleagues to not only vote for this bill, but to continue to advocate for Head Start by supporting full funding for the program. It is not enough to pass the legislation--we need to give our communities the resources they need to carry out our mandates.
I thank Chairman Miller, Chairman Kildee and the Committee on Education and Labor for their work on this important legislation, and urge its final passage today.
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