Sheila Jackson Lee: “I wish to express my outrage and my disgust at the Majority party's effort to destroy the Head Start Program. The…”

“I wish to express my outrage and my disgust at the Majority party's effort to destroy the Head Start Program. The Republican's plan is a sword through the heart of this effective educational program and an insult to America's children. The Majority party's plan shreds the Head Start Program. The Republicans plan to establish a block grant that will amount to the demise of head start. Specifically, Title II of this bill will end Head Start as we know it. The block grant provisions in the Republican bill are a risky experiment that turns a successful program over to states with unproven expertise and without the federal program quality standard requirements and oversight that are demonstrated to increase school readiness. This bill is a classic 'bait and switch.' The GOP claims credit for improving the academic content of Head Start in Title I of the bill but excludes all but one of those improvements to be implemented by block grant states in Title II. The Republican's demolition of Head Start is deplorable because the Head Start program works. Children in the Head Start program arrive at school more prepared and perform better academically than low-income children who are not enrolled in the Head Start program. In addition, although experts say that to expect Head Start to eliminate that gap is 'totally unrealistic,' the Head Start program narrows significantly the readiness gap between children in Head Start and their more affluent peers.”