mr. chairman , years ago it was enough to have an education from kindergarten through 12 years , and now it is not enough . 
people know that you have to have a couple or 3 years before kindergarten and 2 to 4 years afterwards . 
it is now essential . 
it is a priority to have early childhood education . 
it is a difference between a child 's future development and learning advantages , especially for those students that are disadvantaged like the ones that are served by the head start program . 
it makes them prepared for school . 
a national review of 36 studies on the long-term impact of early childhood education programs found that low-income children who participated in such programs were less likely to be held back , less likely to be placed in special education classes , more likely to succeed in school , more likely to graduate , and more likely to be rated as behaving well in class and better adjusted in school . 
researchers have also concluded that there is a greater chance of these positive outcomes when young children are taught by teachers with bachelor 's degrees in early childhood education . 
one of the largest national studies in this early education field was conducted by the national institute for child health and human development . 
it showed that caregiver education and training were among the strongest predictors of quality in programs for preschoolers . 
that is why it is a good thing that this bill has in it a provision that half of the head start teachers have to hold bachelor 's degrees within a few years . 
that is an admirable goal . 
we talked in committee about the fact that it is necessary for us to try to help that population of teachers be able to afford that . 
in massachusetts , my state , they make less than half the salaries of kindergarten teachers . 
the national average is almost as bad . 
i congratulate the chairman for working with us on the higher education act to make sure there is a loan forgiveness program , $ 5 , 000 for 5 years commitment to teach early childhood education , that will help with this particular issue . 
significant improvements have been made to this head start bill . 
that is why it was unanimous approval essentially in committee . 
i am afraid some of the recommendations that are being put forward in the amendments here today are spectacular efforts to drive a wedge between the parties on this , to make it a less-than-unanimous bill . 
it is unnecessary , it is unfortunate , and i hope there is no discrimination in hiring practices . 
we can do better than that and pass a bill that is worthy of this congress and helpful to the united states people . 
