Chris Van Hollen: “we have had bipartisan support for the Head Start program since it was founded in 1965, so it is extremely unfortunate…”

“we have had bipartisan support for the Head Start program since it was founded in 1965, so it is extremely unfortunate that here tonight that bipartisan support is being sacrificed for an ideological agenda of block granting. As we have heard tonight, we agree on two things. We all agree Head Start has been a great success story for millions of American children. We also all agree that it can be improved, that it can be strengthened. So here is the great irony. Our committee did strengthen and improve Head Start in one part of this bill, the first part of the bill. That is what we need. We improved the coordination, and that would help millions of children in the Head Start program. Yet in the other part of the bill we take those improvements away. We take the higher performance standards away. We take away the benefits of the Head Start program, so that what we have provided and strengthened on the one hand we take away with the other. It is a bad deal for America's children. We can do much better. I urge us all to adopt the Miller substitute amendment.”