Elijah Cummings: “the Head Start program, if we did not have one, we would have to invent it, because it has been so effective in…”

“the Head Start program, if we did not have one, we would have to invent it, because it has been so effective in preventing so many problems that children quite often develop after they get a little older. The question has often been asked, why is the Congressional Black Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus so concerned about a Head Start program? And I think it is coming out very clearly as Members have spent a lot of time all day working and now they come here tonight, and the reason the Members are here is because they want to make sure that every child is allowed to grow up to be all that God meant for them to be. The other day I was visiting Sheltonham Juvenile Detention Center in Maryland; and in speaking to the young boys there, most of them between 12-17, I told them when I was 7 years old I could remember young children going off to that detention center. I told them that the march continues even today, and I am 52 years old. I told them that we wanted to make sure that no more of our young men and young women would march off to that institution with shackles around their feet. We want them to be the Dr. Ben Carsons of the world, the teachers, the doctors, the educators, the people who make a difference in our society.…”