I support, as does the Secretary, the initiatives Congress directed when it unanimously passed the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act (WSARA) of 2009.

We've gotten strong partnerships from the business community, working with Governor Rendell and his team.

Well, it's so important to be able to form those partnerships.

Thanks so much. And I want to thank Michele for adjusting to the time.

But, the bottom line with that is, you need to hold all programs to the same exact high standards and provide the support for teachers in those other settings to improve their credentials and improve the program quality.

We want to make sure that a program like this doesn't compete with or injure or diminish the chances for funding and continued investments in Head Start.

I urge Congress to support funding early childhood programs as they reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

90 percent of a child's brain is formed by the time they're 5 years old.

I really believe, on a lot of this work, there's going to be bipartisanship.

So, I think the single most important thing I would like to see you continue to have leadership on is that, exactly as Dr. Ackerman said, quality matters.

These children left my class ready to be the leaders and role models in their new kindergarten classrooms.

Our job, especially those who are elected to public office--no matter what office, no matter what level of government, one of the basic and fundamental obligations you have is to do everything possible to make sure that that light inside a…

It's Senate bill 839. It's a bill that I introduced back in 2007 and 2008.

We would urge the committee to consider the model that was in play in SCHIP.

And as Senator Casey said in the beginning, and that proper nutrition is available for children.

This should not be a Democratic or Republican issue only. It should be a bipartisan issue, and I think it will.

Partnering to Prepare: Expanding Access to High Quality Early Childhood Education.

I think there's a pretty broad bipartisan belief that we ought to make these investments in early learning.