Legislation & Politics

Letter to House Education and Labor Committee urging them to support H.R. 1429, the Head Start reauthorization bill.

March 13, 2007


Members of the Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the 1.4 million members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), I urge you to support H.R. 1429, the Head Start reauthorization bill.  This bill would strengthen Head Start by making important and long needed improvements while keeping the essence of the program intact.  The unique feature of Head Start, and what has made it successful for generations of low-income children and their families, is that in addition to providing infants and children with an excellent early childhood education program, it assists the entire family with a wide range of social services.

In particular, we commend the Committee for increasing the quality funds to 60 percent, by giving local grantees full discretion over those dollars and by narrowing the uses for which this money can be used to include providing professional development and increasing staff salaries, both of which are urgently needed to attract and keep quality staff.  Permitting quality funds to be used for professional development is one way to assist staff in meeting the new and higher educational requirements – 50 percent of the teachers nationwide will have to have a baccalaureate by 2013.  However, we are concerned that this money is insufficient in meeting the level of need for financial assistance and would urge that more funds be provided for this function in the future.  We also commend the bill for its emphasis on maintaining the integral role of parents in the Policy Councils and for suspending and terminating the National Reporting System.

We would urge you to support an amendment that will be offered by Representative Robert Scott that would lift the prohibition on voter registration at Head Start programs.  At present, Head Start programs cannot register parents to vote or even make voter registration cards available to a parent when they enroll their child.  This prohibition is totally inconsistent with the motor voter laws that require public agencies to offer voter registration to their clients.

We urge you to vote to oppose any weakening amendments.  In particular, we strongly oppose any amendment that would modify or repeal the Head Start’s longstanding non-discrimination requirement which prohibits all Head Start providers to engage in religious discrimination when making employment decisions for jobs funded with public dollars.  While religious discrimination with public dollars should be avoided in all cases, it would be especially egregious in the Head Start program.  As an anti-poverty program, Head Start is designed to promote the involvement of parents as volunteers and potential employees.  Thus religious discrimination would act as a barrier to participation by families who do not practice the right religion and would lead inevitably to proselytizing young children who have not had the opportunity to mature and develop their own faith and beliefs.

Sincerely,

 

Charles M. Loveless
Director of Legislation

 

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