mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from florida for yielding me this time . 
mr. speaker , i rise today in support of a program that works , head start , and our efforts today to reauthorize the program in this school readiness act . 
head start has proven itself time and time again to be an effective program and a worthwhile investment of federal dollars . 
for every dollar invested , we see a $ 7 return . 
imagine those returns on the stock market . 
an investment of $ 100 , 000 means that ultimately you would see $ 700 , 000 in your account . 
in fact , with those returns , we should be authorizing a higher level of funding . 
we are all aware of just how critical a child 's first years are , and this is a program that is so much more than just early education and reading skills . 
it is also about health care , nutritional and social benefits for the children as well as their parents . 
head start is about ensuring children are on the right path as they begin their education careers . 
earlier this year , i visited two of the over 110 head start centers in sacramento county in my district . 
during the visit , i witnessed the tangible reward of this program , as well as the harder-to-define benefits . 
at one of the centers , they were learning about shoes , from slippers and sneakers to work boots and rain boots . 
the children were not only learning about how the shoes indicated what people were doing , but about all of the possibilities available to them ; that one day they , too , could be wearing those doctor 's booties or those firefighter 's boots . 
with a goal in mind , maybe not consciously outlined but still a hint of an idea , these children began to dream about the positive benefits of education and where in life an education can take them . 
lifting children out of poverty , offering them hope and possibility instead of despair is truly a worthwhile endeavor , a lesson that head start works to teach . 
i do have one concern today , and that is about the possibility that an amendment allowing religious discrimination could be added to this legislation . 
the idea of discrimination is not something we should be teaching our children . 
by allowing this discrimination , we could be blocking countless parents from rising out of poverty . 
already , thousands of parents have transitioned from parent volunteer to a full-time paid head start teacher . 
there is a bigger and more fundamental issue at stake . 
head start emerged from the civil rights platform of equality and minimizing the reach of poverty in this nation . 
yet , this amendment is about allowing discrimination . 
discrimination only serves to divide us . 
it pits one individual against another , one group against another , something we see far too often . 
this is not a lesson the children should learn . 
head start is a good program . 
we should keep it that way , for all the children of sacramento and all across the country . 
i would hope that during consideration of this legislation today , we would vote down the religious discrimination amendment so we can see this good bill move forward . 
