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Head Start's 51st Anniversary

Floor Speech

Date: May 18, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Education

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Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, today is the 51st anniversary of Head Start.

Fifty-one years ago, in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson announced the groundbreaking program. In that year, a shy little girl and the daughter of Mexican immigrants enrolled in Head Start, and it changed her life. That little girl was me.

In this Chamber, when we fiercely debate funding education, we are sometimes too removed from the reality of the everyday struggles that are facing America's children and just how wide that opportunity gap is.

Even though I stand before you here as a Congresswoman, I also stand before you as a child of Head Start. Universal, early childhood education is the best investment we can make to close that education gap. I know this because I am living proof of it. Head Start was not merely something that helped me; it has helped 32 million children and their parents to prepare for school. It has prepared them for life.

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