John Danforth: “as an original cosponsor of the Parents as Teachers Act, I rise to offer my support for Senator Bond's amendment to…”

“as an original cosponsor of the Parents as Teachers Act, I rise to offer my support for Senator Bond's amendment to include the Parents as Teachers Program as part of Goals 2000. As Governor of Missouri, my colleague developed this fine program in our State, and it works. He should be commended for his continued efforts in promoting this concept. Parents as Teachers began statewide in 1985 with 13,000 families. The program has experienced steady increases in participation with 119,000 families participating last year and a waiting list of 3,000 families. The success of Parents as Teachers is evidenced by its limited replication in 42 other States. The strength of the program is that it is community and family based and it assists parents in being actively engaged in the early childhood development and health of their children from birth until the ages of 3 to 4. The premise underlying the program is that parents are a child's first and most important teachers, and the role of the State is to assist the parents in providing the best educational foundation possible. Parents as Teachers represents a wise investment. Remedial education and dealing with the problems of dropouts in high school are very expensive. Helping children be ready for school in the first place is much more cost effective and supporting parents in doing this makes sense.”