On Monday, Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, applauds the 50th anniversary of the launch of the federal Head Start program, which serves more than 30 million children and their families across the country.
Head Start promotes school readiness for young children from low-income families through partnerships in our local community. In addition, Head Start programs provide children and their families health, nutrition, social and other services vital to early childhood development. Head Start services are responsive to each child and family’s ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage.
Capps has been a longtime supporter of Head Start programs on the Central Coast and around the country. In April, Capps visited two Head Start programs on the Central Coast, one in Santa Barbara and the other in Nipomo, where read to the students as part of the Every Word Counts: Head Start & Congress Read Together program. Nipomo was one of the first cities to launch a six-week Head Start program in California in 1965.
Capps is a co-sponsor of H.Res. 92, a House Resolution commemorating the 50th anniversary of Head Start, and she has signed onto a letter of support to the House Appropriations Committee requesting increased Head Start funding for fiscal year 2016. She has signed a similar letter the past several Congresses.
“Head Start has a proven track record of success over the last 50 years,” Capps said. “Children need high-quality, early learning education programs like Head Start, which help close the achievement gap. I will continue to advocate for increased funding for Head Start in Congress, and support a permanent end to harmful sequestration cuts that jeopardize our investment in our children’s futures.”
Sequestration cut Head Start’s budget by $430 million for fiscal year 2014. Funding was restored last year, but is scheduled to be cut again in fiscal year 2016.
— Chris Meagher is a press secretary for Rep. Lois Capps.