Douglas Alexander: “I introduce today a bill to be considered as part of the legislation reauthorizing Head Start. My bill would create a…”

“I introduce today a bill to be considered as part of the legislation reauthorizing Head Start. My bill would create a way for states to help strengthen and coordinate Head Start, but would continue to send federal funds directly to grantees for the 19,000 Head Start centers that serve one million disadvantaged children. My proposal authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create a nationwide network of 200 Centers of Excellence in Early Childhood built around exemplary Head Start programs. These Centers of Excellence would be nominated by Governors. Each Center of Excellence would receive a Federal bonus grant of at least $100,000 in each of 5 years, in addition to its base funding. And each State would receive a grant to establish and fund a State Council in Early Childhood, which would work with the State Head Start collaboration office to showcase the work of exemplary Head Start centers within a state, capture and disseminate best practices, and identify barriers to and opportunities for coordinated service delivery. The bill would authorize $100 million for those grants for each of the 5 years.”