Statement of Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) At the HELP Committee Markup of the Strong Start for America’s Children Act

“Today, we will mark up the Strong Start for America’s Children Act.  I introduced this bill last November along with Congressmen George Miller and Richard Hanna, and it has received broad support from more than a quarter of the members of the Senate and the House combined.  The bill enjoys bipartisan support in the House but, unfortunately, is supported on only one side of the aisle here in the Senate. This is a disappointment, but it must not keep this Committee from acting on an issue of urgency for our nation.

“This year, our Committee has held three hearings on early learning. Those hearings clarified a few things. They made clear, first, that investing in high-quality early learning is solidly grounded in research and real-world evidence. Second, states and localities are already moving in the direction of supporting high-quality early learning, but their efforts are limited in large part by inadequate resources.  Third, despite claims that we are falling over ourselves spending federal taxpayer dollars on early childhood programs, in truth our current federal investments in early learning are woefully insufficient to meet the needs of America’s children and families.

“The bill before us today presents a simple and important proposition: all children deserve a fair and equal chance to realize their full potential.

“For preschoolers, that means that children should have access to full-day programs that offer nutritious meals, challenging and developmentally appropriate curricula, small class sizes, and well-trained teachers.

“For our infants and toddlers, it means access to high-quality programs that support strong, positive, adult-child interactions that will promote young children’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional development.

“The Strong Start for America’s Children Act will encourage the expansion of these types of programs.  In the case of preschool, it will provide states with robust matching grants so that they can establish, enhance, or expand on their current efforts. In exchange, and over a period of several years, states will increase their current levels of investment in preschool programs.

“This bill is slightly different from the one I introduced last November, and it has been improved thanks to recommendations from many members of this committee and other stakeholders in the early childhood community.  Among the most notable changes is that this bill will allow every state in the country to receive formula grants to expand high-quality preschool. We also made a few changes to strengthen provisions relating to children with disabilities to ensure that they receive necessary screenings and appropriate interventions and referrals if necessary.

“I realize that some have said that this bill is unnecessary or simply promotes new programs when we should be focusing on consolidating or streamlining current efforts. I do not believe that this argument holds up when we look at the harsh realities of early learning in the U.S. Despite states’ investments in preschool, and our federal investments in child care and Head Start which are the only major investments the federal government makes in early learning, we fall far short of meeting the needs of children from birth to age five.

“Head Start and Early Head Start are primarily geared to serving children living in poverty, and Head Start serves less than half of the children eligible. Early Head Start serves less than 5 percent of eligible infants and toddlers. In child care, there are 4.2 million children aged zero-to-three eligible, and only 700,000 of those children receive services. And according to data released just yesterday, the states have reduced their preschool roles for the first time in a decade and are only serving about 30 percent of their four-year-olds and less than 5 percent of three-year-olds. That says to me that we don’t need to be consolidating programs or cutting programs, we need greater investments to meet currently existing needs.  This also says to me that states are struggling to provide preschool and they need a willing partner in the federal government to help ensure that children are getting the early childhood experiences that the research tells us are so critical to school readiness. That’s why this bill authorizes more than $30 billion in the first five years to expand opportunities for young children aged zero-to-five.

“This is a good bill and is worthy of immediate, favorable action from the Committee, and I urge its passage.”   

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