DeLauro Leads Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Democrats in Examining Budget for Early Education Programs

WASHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), senior Democrat on the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee today highlighted the need for additional investments in high-quality early education programs. Among the witnesses making the case for early interventions at today’s Subcommittee hearing was Yale’s Dr. Walter Gilliam, Director of The Edward Zigler Center.

During the question and answer period, DeLauro and the panel’s expert witnesses discussed the ways educators address hunger, homelessness, poverty and other traumatic events in early childhood programs. Those exchanges can be viewed here, beginning at about 40 minutes in.

The following remarks are as delivered at today’s hearing. They can also be viewed here.

“Thank you very much, Mister Chairman. I join you in welcoming our colleague Denny Rehberg; it’s lovely to see you. We formed the bipartisan Baby Caucus, with a focus on babies and toddlers, we held forums that dealt specifically with early childhood education and some of the issues we will face today about violence and neglect on youngsters. I also want to say hello to Alan Lopatin who has done an outstanding job with Zero to Three and Kat McDonald who was Legislative Director for me and now she’s with the First Five Years Fund so we havean audience today singularly focused on how we make a difference in the lives of our young people.

“I want to say a thank you to our witnesses. The work you do on the front lines of early childhood development is critical not just to our kids but to the future of our country. The Zigler Center is carrying on the legacy of the father of Head Start, Professor Ed Zigler, who I am proud to count as a mentor, a constituent, and a friend. We had the opportunity to honor him a week or so ago. Ounce of Prevention has pioneered comprehensive early childhood education, including Educare and home visiting. And Smart Start Oklahoma has helped to position its state as an acknowledged leader in early childhood programs. I am happy to have the opportunity to hear your views. It is especially fitting that we are able to do so in the 50th anniversary year of Head Start.

“As the Chairman mentioned we are here to talk about the importance of early childhood development and the role government can play in delivering high-quality programs to young children and their families. We will consider the investment made through three crucial federal programs. The Child Care and Development Block Grant helps working parents balance jobs with family life. Preschool Development Grants help states make strides toward universal pre-K. And Head Start brings together all of the services that matter most to young children and their families – education, health, emotional wellbeing, nutrition, social services, and more.

“Although it is a mandatory program and therefore not funded under this committee’s bill, I would like to mention the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program, which is one of the topics we addressed at the baby caucus. This is a program that does an outstanding job of improving the health of at-risk children and their parents.

“There is a growing mountain of evidence that early childhood interventions like these work. They reduce inequality, they narrow achievement gaps. Economically, they also represent an excellent return on investment; we have Nobel laureate economist James Heckman and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke agreeing on this effort. Children who benefit from these programs are healthier, less likely to need special education services, to be held back a grade, or to get into trouble with the law. And they are more likely to go to college and have professional careers.

“A quick example. I recently spoke at a gala honoring the father of Head Start – and a proud New Haven resident for over 50 years – Professor Edward Zigler. At the gala, Professor Zigler was reunited with an anesthesiologist, Dr. John Paul Kim, who had treated him at Yale-New Haven Hospital. It turned out that Dr. Kim was himself a Head Start alumnus. His parents had been refugees from Cambodia. And he credited his success in life directly to Head Start. Needless to say, he was excited to meet the father of the program – even though applying the anesthetic to his hero was a little nerve-wracking, as he described!

“So it is no exaggeration to say that among the kids enrolled in early childhood programs are tomorrow’s doctors, scientists, teachers, engineers, and political leaders. As Professor Zigler himself has put it, ‘If every child is a national resource, then every child’s welfare is a national responsibility.’ And, I would add, a national priority. There is simply no better way to spend our health and education dollars than to fund early childhood development, which is why these programs have long enjoyed support from both sides of the aisle – as I know as co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Baby Caucus, where we do try to keep Members of Congress up to date on the very latest research.

“Overall, these programs have fared relatively well in recent years. Since 2010, we have grown Head Start’s budget by nearly $1.4 billion, or 19 percent, although unfortunately, inflation has swallowed more than half of that increase. Similarly, we have increased the Child Care and Development Block Grant by $308 million, which is $125 million in real terms. And, of course, we have created and funded Preschool Development Grants. Not to be self-serving, but I was very excited to be a part of that effort in developing those grants.

“In fairness, compared to the ongoing cuts that are devastating other priorities funded by this Committee, that is good news. It reflects widespread, bipartisan agreement about the importance of early childhood education and development. But the measure of how much we need to invest is not how little we are investing in other areas. That’s not the issue. It is the level of need for each program. And there are still a lot of disadvantaged children who are not receiving the support that they in order need to thrive and succeed.

“As Dr. Gilliam notes in his testimony, our investment in infants and toddlers has failed to keep pace with population over the past 10 years. Head Start reaches only 41 percent of eligible three- and four-year-olds. Less than one quarter of low-income families have access to federally subsidized childcare. As a nation, we are lagging behind key competitors. We rank 26th in pre-school participation among four-year-olds, 24th among three-year-olds, and 21st in investment in early childhood interventions relative to the wealth of our country. All the while, emerging powerhouses like China and India are committing massive increases in their own investments in this area.

“The President’s budget request is a step in the right direction. It proposes an 18 percent increase for Head Start, 15 percent increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, an additional half-billion dollars for Preschool Development Grants. This is good news for our country. I hope that, given the overwhelming evidence in favor of these programs, we will be able to meet the commitments that the President proposes. If we are serious about making early childhood programs available to all needy children, and maintaining our competitive edge on the global stage, we must be willing to fund even bigger investments.

“Thank you all for being here and many thanks to you, Mr. Chairman.”


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