Chris Dodd: “I said about $100 million. The idea is just, if we can, to get these levels of support and funding up because of the…”

“I said about $100 million. The idea is just, if we can, to get these levels of support and funding up because of the rising costs of running these programs. Energy costs are going up on the average in Head Start Programs by 15 percent. Transportation costs are going up 16 percent. Health insurance in some places has gone up as high as 25 percent. Training for staff is up 4 percent. Facility maintenance is up 9 percent. Services for children with special needs, of course, continues to rise. This amendment does not expand the program. It is not going to add 100,000 children to the Head Start Program. It is just designed to make sure that we do not see the program deteriorate, that we do not force children presently in the program to be dropped because we are unable to meet the predictable inflationary costs of about 2.7 percent in Head Start Programs across the country. That is the rationale for it. It is not an excessive amendment at all. It is a realistic effort to try to do what we can to see to it that these children are going to get the kind of start they deserve. To make my case, I want to point out two studies. One was done a number of years ago. It was a survey done of kindergarten teachers throughout the United States. These were asked, How ready are children when they come to kindergarten? How ready are they to learn?…”