Steny Hoyer: “this concept of community schools Mr. Walsh correctly refers to is a concept that is present in many States, many…”

“this concept of community schools Mr. Walsh correctly refers to is a concept that is present in many States, many communities. My wife Judy was the supervisor of early childhood education in Prince Georges County, Maryland, just down the road. She started a concept in our county of full service schools, community schools. There are now 24 Judy Centers in the State of Maryland. Maryland has paid for them, started them. The problem with a full service community school, as Judy found out and as all of us know, is the turf battles. The turf battles are ferocious. Some people have made fun of the fact that it takes a village to raise a child. Now, obviously, hopefully every child has a good parent. But we have many services available to make sure that our young people, when they get to the ninth grade, are ready to succeed in the ninth and 10th and 11th and 12th grades. But those services in many communities are discordant and not coordinated. So the concept of a full service or a community school is to bring together services, not in a forced way, but in a cooperative way.”