Political Quotes

“That is a list of the dollar amounts that States would receive under this. They have to choose to participate, but if they did, they would have not just the dollars for it but the children served. So my amendment would benefit 3 million children across the country and almost 94,000 children in Pennsylvania. In Ohio, 118,760 children would benefit from this program. Even a very large State that might not have the investment we would hope, a State such as Texas, has 299,902 children--let's just round it off and call it 300,000--who would benefit. This chart shows the number of children who would benefit, and I believe it is long overdue that we made this commitment to our children. The State would have to match, and that is why I mentioned it at the beginning. This is a Federal and State partnership. And we know if that happens, the full-day preschool would be available for 4-year-olds-- that is the age category we are focused on--from families earning 200 percent below the Federal poverty level. So if it is a family of four, 200 percent is a little less than $49,000 of family income. Earlier, I mentioned quality. We don't want to just have programs set up around the country--a Federal and State partnership and have a program. That would be nice, but it won't advance the goal of the best possible learning. We want high-quality programs. So we insist that the programs be ones that have teachers with high qualifications who are paid comparably to K-through-12 teachers.…”