It's Senate bill 839. It's a bill that I introduced back in 2007 and 2008.

Partnering to Prepare: Expanding Access to High Quality Early Childhood Education.

Thanks so much. And I want to thank Michele for adjusting to the time.

We would urge the committee to consider the model that was in play in SCHIP.

So, I think the single most important thing I would like to see you continue to have leadership on is that, exactly as Dr. Ackerman said, quality matters.

90 percent of a child's brain is formed by the time they're 5 years old.

And as Senator Casey said in the beginning, and that proper nutrition is available for children.

I want to thank the students, who are in the back of the room, for their presence here.

Our job, especially those who are elected to public office--no matter what office, no matter what level of government, one of the basic and fundamental obligations you have is to do everything possible to make sure that that light inside a…

But, the bottom line with that is, you need to hold all programs to the same exact high standards and provide the support for teachers in those other settings to improve their credentials and improve the program quality.

So, we'll make sure we have the adjective before pre-K, quality or high quality.

We want to make sure that a program like this doesn't compete with or injure or diminish the chances for funding and continued investments in Head Start.

One of the best ways to do that is to make sure that we make investments in early education.

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to be with us.

Pre-K programs are essential in assuring school success for all children.

It cannot continue the journey substantially, cannot complete the journey, without help from the Federal Government.

These children left my class ready to be the leaders and role models in their new kindergarten classrooms.

I think there's a pretty broad bipartisan belief that we ought to make these investments in early learning.

I do not underestimate the work that it will take, however, even with bipartisanship.

This should not be a Democratic or Republican issue only. It should be a bipartisan issue, and I think it will.

I urge Congress to support funding early childhood programs as they reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Well, it's so important to be able to form those partnerships.

I think you're going to see some common ground.

I really believe, on a lot of this work, there's going to be bipartisanship.

You said 'Mission: Readiness.'