Dan Kildee: “the Putnam amendment would jeopardize the seamless services that many high-quality Head Start programs with very deep…”

“the Putnam amendment would jeopardize the seamless services that many high-quality Head Start programs with very deep roots in their communities provide to disadvantaged children. Because the quality of our Head Start programs is critical to ensuring that disadvantaged children receive the benefits of Head Start, this bill, which passed out with only one dissenting vote from committee, implements a new process to recompete underperforming programs. The amendment by Mr. Putnam guts the bill's provision to ensure that high-quality Head Start programs do not have to recompete for their grants. They are reviewed by a panel of experts we put in place to look at them. They are reviewed and have to satisfy that review, but they do not then have to recompete. The Putnam amendment also eliminates the bill's provisions to ensure a fair and equitable process for recompeting underperforming Head Start programs. And we worked hard to get a fair and equitable process for that.”