Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2123, School Readiness Act of 2005
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2123, SCHOOL READINESS ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - September 22, 2005)
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Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a program that works, Head Start, and our efforts today to reauthorize the program in this School Readiness Act.
Head Start has proven itself time and time again to be an effective program and a worthwhile investment of Federal dollars. For every dollar invested, we see a $7 return. Imagine those returns on the stock market. An investment of $100,000 means that ultimately you would see $700,000 in your account. In fact, with those returns, we should be authorizing a higher level of funding.
We are all aware of just how critical a child's first years are, and this is a program that is so much more than just early education and reading skills. It is also about health care, nutritional and social benefits for the children as well as their parents. Head Start is about ensuring children are on the right path as they begin their education careers.
Earlier this year, I visited two of the over 110 Head Start centers in Sacramento County in my district. During the visit, I witnessed the tangible reward of this program, as well as the harder-to-define benefits.
At one of the centers, they were learning about shoes, from slippers and sneakers to work boots and rain boots. The children were not only learning about how the shoes indicated what people were doing, but about all of the possibilities available to them; that one day they, too, could be wearing those doctor's booties or those firefighter's boots.
With a goal in mind, maybe not consciously outlined but still a hint of an idea, these children began to dream about the positive benefits of education and where in life an education can take them.
Lifting children out of poverty, offering them hope and possibility instead of despair is truly a worthwhile endeavor, a lesson that Head Start works to teach.
I do have one concern today, and that is about the possibility that an amendment allowing religious discrimination could be added to this legislation. The idea of discrimination is not something we should be teaching our children. By allowing this discrimination, we could be blocking countless parents from rising out of poverty. Already, thousands of parents have transitioned from parent volunteer to a full-time paid Head Start teacher.
There is a bigger and more fundamental issue at stake. Head Start emerged from the civil rights platform of equality and minimizing the reach of poverty in this Nation. Yet, this amendment is about allowing discrimination.
Discrimination only serves to divide us. It pits one individual against another, one group against another, something we see far too often. This is not a lesson the children should learn.
Head Start is a good program. We should keep it that way, for all the children of Sacramento and all across the country. I would hope that during consideration of this legislation today, we would vote down the religious discrimination amendment so we can see this good bill move forward.
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