House Passes Kildee’s Head Start Bill,

Washington, D.C. – The House of Representatives passed today a bill authored by Congressman Dale E. Kildee (D-MI) to reauthorize the popular and effective Head Start program.  H.R. 1429, the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act is a bipartisan bill that would reauthorize Head Start for the first time since 1998.  Head Start is the country’s premiere early education and development program and has served more than 20 million low-income children and their families since 1965.

The Improving Head Start and School Readiness Act of 2007 would:

• Improve Head Start’s workforce quality by ensuring that half of teachers nationwide will have a Bachelor’s degree by 2013;
• Strengthen the focus on school readiness by re-evaluating and updating current standards and assessments based on the best available science and suspending the badly flawed National Reporting System;
• Increase Head Start program’s flexibility to serve children whose family is between 100-130% of the poverty line while ensuring that the neediest children remain the program’s top priority;
• Prioritize the expansion of Early Head Start;
• Strengthens Comprehensive Services by emphasizing early identification of child and family mental health needs and requiring programs to implement best practices for family service workers; and
• Maintain strong parental involvement in Head Start programs.

The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act is expected to pass the Senate later this week and to be signed by the President.

Following are the remarks of Congressman Kildee delivered on the House Floor:

“I am pleased to be here today, and I know that everyone agrees that it has been far too long since we have reauthorized the Head Start Act.

“Head Start has served millions of our most vulnerable children and families well for 42 years.  More recently, early heard start has done the same for infants and toddlers.

“Head Start works, and this bill will make it work even better.

“Nothing is more critical to a child’s success than a great teacher, and this bill will ensure that by 2013, half of Head Start teachers nationwide will have bachelor’s degrees.

“It will improve professional development so that teachers can keep up with best practices in early childhood education.

“The bill increases funding for Early Head Start, so that children will receive comprehensive services during the most critical stages of brain development.

“It requires the Secretary to update early learning standards using the best science, and puts an end to the administration’s ill-advised national reporting system.

“It authorizes significant increases in resources so that we can expand access, and I want to work with our friends on the Appropriations Committees to do that.

“It enhances the quality of Head Start boards while maintaining a shared governance structure that empowers parents.

“And, it is especially important to me that the bill prioritizes significant resources for Indian and migrant and seasonal Head Start programs, both to expand existing programs and create new programs, so that these children, whose communities face such terrific challenges, can grow up to help their communities overcome those challenges.”