School Readiness Act of 2005
SCHOOL READINESS ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - September 22, 2005)
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Pursuant to House Resolution 455 and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 2123.
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Mr. MICA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
First, I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner), also the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), the subcommittee chairman, and others who have worked on this legislation. There is probably no piece of legislation in this Congress that is more important to the future of this country and our children and our students than this piece of legislation.
I have educated as an educator and have worked over the years to try to get improvement in the quality of Head Start, and I commend all of those involved and also the President of the United States for emphasizing improving the quality of Head Start.
We spend $7,222 per student for some 900,000 students involved in Head Start and improving the quality. These young people can learn, and they should have an academic component, and we should have the best personnel in these Head Start programs, and we have gone a long way in that regard.
Unfortunately, over the course of the last years, we have had incidents of waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, even financial abuse of taxpayer dollars in the Head Start programs, and again, we have limited taxpayer dollars to expend, and we want them expended in the most efficient and proper manner.
While a large majority of Head Start programs have very responsible management and organization in place, I think Congress has an obligation to improve known problems before they get worse and also insist on correction.
Weak or failing Head Start programs are unfair to taxpayers, but mostly, and most importantly, they are unfair to the children who need assistance in these programs, not to mention they are unfair to the taxpayers.
So this amendment directs the Secretary of HHS to undertake a management reform initiative, and I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) for crafting this amendment, and he has my strong support, and I am pleased to offer it because we want this to be the best program possible.
In conclusion, I just want to give a couple of examples. I have one Head Start program I looked at that has 135 students, 17 teachers, and none of the teachers are certified in the program. That should be corrected by this legislation. But the cost for the program is $900,000, and we are spending $72,000 per student on this one Head Start program.
I have other Head Start programs, one in my district, where we have 526 students, and we reviewed what other preschool programs were paying. Right now, it is costing us about $8,439 per student. The most expensive private prep school in the district costs $8,400 a year. The private Catholic school costs $2,160 a year, and the private Christian academy costs $4,400 a year.
We need to look at what the management, what the waste and inefficiencies are in the programs that we have with Head Start, make certain that we are expending this money properly, that we eliminate bureaucracy, wasteful mismanagement and, unfortunately, in some instances, fraud and abuse.
This amendment will go a long way towards achieving that goal and making certain that every one of these taxpayer dollars are spent in the best way to benefit these children and give them truly a head start.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MICA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
In conclusion, I know we all saw the pictures that were quite shocking in New Orleans, and many people were stunned by the level of poverty that we saw when the dikes and the levees broke. Much more was broken in that community and our communities, and that is, the education of our poorest children. No piece of legislation will do more, I think, in advancing the interests and the educational opportunities for our children than this legislation.
So I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner), the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), and others involved in moving this important piece of legislation forward, improving the quality and also improving the management, making certain with this amendment that every dollar goes towards the betterment of those disadvantaged in our society.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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