Student Success Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Madam Chair, I yield myself 3 minutes.

Madam Chair, in addition to achieving outstanding results for individual children, high-quality early childhood education and care is as close to a silver bullet as we are going to find to solve our economic challenges.

Young children's brains develop at an astonishing pace. Children's first learning experiences during these years are critical to their visual, language, and social emotional development. Skills developed at this stage are the foundation of language and reading proficiency, the key indicators for academic and economic success later in life.

America's early childhood teachers will provide our children their first informative experiences and are, therefore, a critical influence on our Nation's future economy. An important stepping stone to the middle class is not just access to early learning, but access to high-quality learning.

Parents should be able to go to work and have confidence that their kids are receiving high-quality learning experiences. This confidence, in turn, enhances parents' ability to work and reach their own economic potential.

For this reason, I am offering a commonsense amendment. This amendment simply clarifies that professional development for early grade teachers is an acceptable use of funding under this bill.

Local school systems should have the flexibility to use title II funds, the existing funds that are already targeted to support teachers, principals, and school leaders on professional development that directly benefits our youngest learners. It is important to note that this amendment does not require them to do so; rather, it simply allows them.

This no-cost amendment is supported by a range of early childhood advocates, including the Center for Law and Social Policy and Zero to Three. High-quality early childhood education for our youngest learners is a goal that cuts across party lines and enjoys broad support from the American public.

It is a win-win. I hope my colleagues in both parties will support this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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