FIELD HEARING ON AUTHORIZATION OF HEAD START

Tuesday, July 7, 1998

House of Representatives

Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families

Committee on Education and the Workforce

Washington, D.C.

STATEMENT OF LILLIAN QUINTANILLA, CHAIRPERSON, HIDALGO COUNTY HEAD START POLICY COUNCIL, WESLCO, TEXAS *

STATEMENT OF MS. IRMA PENA, FORMER INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HIDALGO COUNTY HEAD START PROGRAM, EDINBURG, TEXAS *

DR. MIGUEL DE LOS SANTOS, DEPARTMENT CHAIR, SCHOOL OF ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PAN-AMERICAN, EDINBURG, TEXAS *

STATEMENT OF DR. ANNA MARIA RODRIGUEZ, DEPARTMENT CHAIR, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN, EDINBURG, TEXAS *

STATEMENT OF DR. SYLVIA HATTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, REGION ONE EDUCATION SERVICE CENTER, EDINBURG, TEXAS *

STATEMENT OF BLANCHE A. RUSS-GLOVER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PARENT/CHILD, INCORPORATED, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS *

STATEMENT OF DR. BLANCA ENRIQUEZ, DIRECTOR, REGION NINETEEN EDUCATION SERVICE CENTER, EL PASO, TEXAS *

APPENDIX A -- THE WRITTEN STATEMENT OF MS. LILLIAN QUINTANILLA, CHAIRPERSON, HIDALGO COUNTY HEAD START POLICY COUNTIL, WESLACO, TEXAS *

APPENDIX B -- THE WRITTEN STATEMENT OF MS. IRMA PENA, DIRECTOR, FAMILY SERVICES DEPARTMENT, HIDALGO COUNTY HEAD START, EDINBURG, TEXAS *

APPENDIX C -- THE WRITTEN STATEMENT OF DR. MIGUEL DE LOS SANTOS, DEPARTMENT CHAIR, SCHOOL OF ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PAN-AMERICAN, EDINBURG, TEXAS *

APPENDIX D -- THE WRITTEN STATEMENT OF DR. ANNA MARIA RODRIGUEZ, DEPARTMENT CHAIR, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PAN-AMERICAN, EDINBURG, TEXAS *

APPENDIX E -- THE WRITTEN STATEMENT OF DR. SYLVIA HATTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, REGION ONE EDUCATION SERVICE CENTER, EDINBURG, TEXAS *

APPENDIX F -- THE WRITTEN STATEMENT OF MS. BLANCHE A. RUSS-GLOVER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PARENT/CHILD INCORPORATED, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS *

APPENDIX G -- THE WRITTEN STATEMENT OF MS. BLANCA E. ENRIQUEZ, DIRECTOR, REGION 19 EDUCATION SERVICE CENTER, EL PASO, TEXAS *

APPENDIX H -- THE OPENING STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE FRANK RIGGS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA *

Table of Indexes *

Tuesday, July 7, 1998

House of Representatives

Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families

Committee on Education and the Workforce

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 8:30 a.m., in the McAllen City Hall, 1300 Houston Street, Commissioners Courtroom 3rd Floor, McAllen, Texas, Hon. Frank Riggs [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.

Present: Representatives Riggs, Martinez, and Hinojosa.

Staff Present: Denzel McGuire, Professional Staff Member/Education; Cheryl Johnson, Legislative Associate/Education; and Sarah Shipman, Legislative Assistant, Rep. Hinojosa.

Chairman Riggs. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. My name is Frank Riggs. I represent the First Congressional District of California. That's Northwest California, the other California. I am from the one that, perhaps, most of you are familiar with.

I just want to say that I am delighted to be here this morning in McAllen, Texas, an All-American City, and I could see just when I got in last night and today coming over to the hearing all of the signs of progress and vitality that I am sure factored into the decision to name McAllen an All-American City.

And I am delighted to be here today to chair this third in a series of hearings on the reauthorization of the federal taxpayer-funded Head Start program. This is one of our top priorities in the remaining days of this Congress, the 105th Congress, in our country's history.

To my right is my good friend and fellow Californian, Congressman Matthew Martinez, and he is from the other California, Southern California, and he is the ranking member, the senior-most democrat on our subcommittee.

Also joining us today is a member of the full committee on which the three of us serve, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and that is your representative, Congressman Ruben Hinojosa.

I am very pleased to be in Congressman Hinojosa's district today, and at this point in time, Congressman Martinez and I are going to defer to Congressman Hinojosa and recognize him for introductions and opening remarks. Congressman Hinojosa.

Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Chairman Riggs. Is my microphone on? Can everybody hear me in the back? Thank you. I want to defer from my prepared statement and recognize someone who has just come in, our former Congressman Kiki de la Garza. I want to give you a big round of applause for joining us this morning.

Congressman de la Garza served over 32 years in Congress and has seen how we have been able to take a program as is going to be discussed today from its infancy in the 1960s to where it is today. So we are very happy to have you with us Congressman De La Garza.

Also I want to recognize two individuals sitting to the right of former Congressman de la Garza. Our own County Judge Reynaldo Cuellar who is representing the Hidalgo County Commissioners Court, and certainly one who oversee the Head Start program that we have. We welcome you, County Judge.

We also want to give special recognition to the mayor of our community of McAllen, a great successful attorney, one who has been a civic leader for many, many years, and one who has been a strong advocate of education ever since I met him back in the 1960s when he was a teacher and then an administrator.

And so I would like to ask the mayor if he would like to make some opening remarks.

Mayor Montalvo. Thank you Congressman Hinojosa, and welcome Congressman Riggs and Congressman Martinez. I understand that the two other congressmen had some difficulty getting here, but we are happy to see you here.

I won't hold it against you that you are Republican, because I look at education as a nonpartisan issue. Quality education should be nonpartisan, because I think that is the backbone, obviously, of our country. And if we are to succeed, we need an educated population.

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to converse with Congressman Hinojosa prior to our Fourth of July parade. He told me a little story. I am going to share it with you. I was sharing it with Congressman Riggs earlier this morning.

In the 60s, there was a man that went to Houston and became a dishwasher and later a waiter and then became the owner of the restaurant, and then another restaurant, and another restaurant. After being successful as a businessman, he was invited to be on the board of directors of a bank. He kind of declined at first indicating that he did not have the education. He only had been to school through the second grade.

I also make the distinction between education and schooling. So here we have an individual who is probably well-educated in the area of business and then went on to get a GED, because he did serve on the bank's board of directors, and then he commissioned two teachers to tell him what it took for youngsters to be successful in the first three years.

And they told him, "Well, you need the basic vocabulary of about 400 words." And so he developed what became known as the Little School of the 400, and then he hired aides and teachers.

This concept later became known as Head Start. I call it Even Start. We are not getting a head start for our kids. I think we want an even start to start at the line wearing tennis shoes and not being barefoot when we start the race.

I welcome you to the city of McAllen. I hope you have a successful hearing today. And from the number of people who are here to testify and the number of people who are here in the audience, I am sure that you will be getting sufficient input for the reauthorization of this very important legislation that impacts millions of kids across this country.

Again, I emphasize that education to me is nonpartisan and that we all need to support it. Welcome to McAllen.

Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for that welcome and for your remarks. I want to say good morning and welcome to every one of you who is here. This is the largest public hearing that I have ever participated in, and we have had many.

I want to thank every one of you for making the time to be here. As you know, we are here to discuss the Head Start program in Hidalgo County. We are happy to see graduate students from the University of Texas-Pan American who are in Dr. de los Santos' class. I believe that they are the education leadership class, and we thank you for coming to be a part of this public hearing.

I would like to recognize Chairman Frank Riggs and Democratic Ranking Member Marty Martinez of the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth, and Families. Chairman Frank Riggs is the prestigious chairman of the education subcommittee responsible for special education needs, school lunch, and child nutrition programs, including Head Start and education technology.

He is known in Congress as a maverick and an agent of change. That is particularly why his presence this morning means so much to me and why he will be a very strong force in what happens in the reauthorization of Head Start program.

I am also delighted to welcome my friend and colleague Congressman Matthew we call him Marty Martinez of California. He was first elected to Congress in 1982. Congressman Martinez is one of three leaders on the Education Committee who drive Democratic education initiatives.

During his chairmanship of the Human Resources Subcommittee, his position was defined as the modern-day father of Head Start. He is someone who represents a seasoned voice on the education of America's children.

To both of my distinguished colleagues, thank you for coming to South Texas, and I welcome you.

Let me begin my opening remarks by saying the facts are clear. There is overwhelming evidence that quality early childhood programs, particularly those that closely involve parents, do make a difference in the lives of at-risk children and their families.

Head Start is one of only a few such successful programs in existence. The Head Start program was created in 1964 as part of President Johnson's war on poverty. It is the only national program that addresses the educational, social, health, and emotional needs of at-risk families.

Low-income families face high rates of domestic violence, substance abuse, illiteracy, and other influences that detract from a child's ability to enter school ready to learn and detract from a family's abilities to succeed in the community.

Head Start addresses these factors by involving entire families in a comprehensive program of center-based and in-home services designed to address the needs of children and families.

Head Start works. It has been proven. It helps low-income children arrive at school more ready to learn. It improves intelligence, academic readiness, and achievement. Self-esteem, social behavior, physical health, periodic medical screening, and treatment are part of that Head Start program.

Several studies show that Head Start helps to improve the lives of parents as well. Parents talk more with their children. They participate more frequently in their children's activities and enjoy greater confidence in their ability to cope and interact in society.

Every presidential administration and every Congress since the program's inception has supported Head Start. Republicans and Democrats alike support this program. A vast majority of the American people support Head Start. Rarely, if ever, has a program enjoyed such broad-based support.

Today we are here to look at different Head Start models throughout the state of Texas. We will examine how they have successfully helped low-income children and families through comprehensive services, parental involvement in program decisions in their child's education and development, and community involvement and partnerships.

Hidalgo County Commissioners Court and the parent policy council have recently chosen a new executive director, Santiago Alaniz, and I applaud them for taking this action. This decision-making process has allowed both parents and community partners to come to an agreement on the best director for the program.

Now it is time to focus on maximizing the benefits of the program. Our children are entitled to the best comprehensive services, quality programs, well-trained teachers, and a learning environment that insures school readiness.

It is an honor for me to represent South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. I am very pleased to be able to participate in this public hearing on Head Start programs, and I would like to return the program to the chairman of our subcommittee, Chairman Frank Riggs.

Chairman Riggs. Thank you, Congressman Hinojosa, and thank you for your kind comments. I think you have done a good job of setting the stage and are striking just the right tone for our hearing today, and at this point, I would like to recognize our friend and colleague, the ranking member of the subcommittee, Congressman Martinez, for his opening statement, if he chooses to make one.

Mr. Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me start out by saying, I want to express my gratitude to you, Mr. Chairman, for convening this hearing and providing Congressman Hinojosa with the opportunity to organize, what I believe will be a very engaging and informational discussion.

And I want to say at the offset that it was extremely difficult for Mr. Riggs to be here today because his mother is quite ill, and it was an extreme sacrifice for him to come all this way to be with us. I want him to know that our prayers go out to her, and I hope that she will be better soon.

I want to, of course, thank Congressman Hinojosa for the invitation, and I think that he should truly be commended for all the efforts that he has put forth in bringing this hearing about. His strong leadership in the area and his commitment to the children and families of his community and the nation is evidenced by his tireless work to help strengthen the Head Start program here in McAllen.

Head Start, to me, is one of the most effective early intervention efforts that the federal government has invested its money in up to this present day. Nationwide, countless numbers of low-income children and families benefit from Head Start's comprehensive system of services.

Just today I met a lady whose daughter just graduated from Harvard and in her first year of employment is going to work for a federal judge. It is another example of the fine work that Head Start does.

As for my colleagues, they know that the 1994 authorization process was a comprehensive and critical evaluation of the program. The changes that we made to improve the accountability and the quality of our Head Start programs were something that both the Republicans and the Democrats worked on.

And I want to assure the mayor at this point in time that Mr. Riggs, when it comes to the future of our children, is very nonpartisan and has shown that throughout the bills that we have passed thus far.

I believe that we put in place back in 1994 an effective and locally driven and inspired program that has shown its beneficial effects both through research and millions of satisfied parents and families. That does not mean that in isolated instances individual Head Start programs do not need assistance to improve quality and become models of excellence. That is one of the reasons that we are here this morning.

In fact, I believe that Head Start can achieve even greater success. I have introduced legislation which I hope the chairman will look at favorably to improve the reauthorization. This bill the Human Services Amendments of 1998, reauthorizes the Head Start Act and seeks to insure it addresses critical issues that we face today.

Given the avalanche of research on the importance of brain development in the very youngest children, my legislation would increase the set aside for Early Head Start from its present level of 5 percent to 10 percent. Intervening in the very early years of a child's life can prevent so many of the problems that we associate with poverty malnutrition, disability, and beyond. Early Head Start has met this charge and now must be expanded so that we can help a greater number of disadvantaged youngsters.

In addition to the bill's focus on the youngest of our children, it would strengthen the coordination and partnership between Head Start programs and local education agencies, something that I know that Mr. Riggs is very much in favor of.

This will help insure that the progress that the children achieve in Head Start will be sustained throughout their years in school and, ultimately, throughout their adult lives. It is my understanding that the witnesses on the second panel will share with us the benefits that they have seen of linking Head Start with the K-through-12 education system.

In closing, I would like to reiterate my appreciation to Congressman Riggs for convening this hearing, and my thanks to Congressman Hinojosa for providing the Members the opportunity to learn how Head Start works in these communities that he represents. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman Riggs. Thank you, Congressman Martinez. And again, ladies and gentlemen, welcome and thank you for your attendance and your participation here today. I don't know if anybody noticed, I promise you we did not compare notes or coordinate plans ahead of time, but both Congressman Martinez and I are wearing Save the Children ties. We don't know what is wrong with Ruben this morning. Just kidding.

But I hope that obviously strikes the right bipartisan note for the hearing today. In fact, my tie was given to me by my mom, and I appreciate Congressman Martinez's kind words.

It is a Save the Children tie, and these are fingerprints that was made by a little girl by the name of Ariana, age 12. I can relate to that, Our youngest is Sarah Ann Riggs, who is 11 going on 21. And the same goes, it is just like fingerprints, every child is different. And I think that also is probably a pretty good guiding philosophy for our consideration and deliberations on the reauthorization of Head Start.

I want to recognize and salute our former colleague, the former chairman of the House of Agriculture Committee and Congressman Hinojosa's predecessor, Congressman de la Garza, for being here today. We appreciate his interest and his involvement and solicit his advice and his input as we go about the reauthorization.

Mr. Chairman, I don't know if you know or not, but we are also kind of moving on parallel tracts to reauthorize the WIC program, children's program, and have now moved the bill out of our committee, which is now pending consideration on the Floor of the House when we return from this July 4th district work period or congressional recess.

We really want to thank our local elected officials, the county judge and the mayor, for being with us today, sitting with us. Gentlemen, I know you have pressing schedules, so feel free to stay as long as you would like, but we understand if you have to leave.

And Mr. Mayor, let me assure you that I share the philosophy of leaving partisan politics at the schoolhouse door. And, in fact, I think those are sentiments that President Clinton has mentioned repeatedly. In fact, I have heard him utter those very words in his last two State of the Union addresses to the joint session of Congress and to the country.

Our goal is to introduce a reauthorization bill soon after we reconvene. And as I mentioned, Congress is in recess now for a district work period. We will reconvene a week from today in Washington for votes. I would hope that soon after reconvening we could actually introduce a bill that would then be marked up or reported out at the full committee level and sent to the House floor.

In what is kind of a reversal of the normal process, the Senate is actually a little bit ahead of the House of Representatives. They have already approved a bill through committee that would expand early Head Start funding, built on the 1994 reauthorization, by requiring new standards to insure that children are ready for school, improve literacy training for children and for parents, and improve teaching and access for the disabled, and require assessments of individual programs.

It would also step up efforts to help children make the transition from Head Start to kindergarten, in order to try to address and to minimize the so-called fade-out effect in which educational gains diminish after two or three years in elementary school.

So, in other words, how do we sustain that even start, Mr. Mayor, that we want to give to our children, particularly, the most disadvantaged children in society. This program, as my colleagues have pointed out, has traditionally enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the Congress.

In just the last few years, Congress and the White House, and you know we are now, of course, living in the era of divided government where one party controls the White House, the other party controls the Congress, and we have had at times some very contentious policy debates and frank disagreements, if you will pardon the pun.

But on this subject, there has been continued bipartisan support back in Washington. In fact, Congress has approved and the President has signed funding bills that have increased spending for Head Start from $2.2 billion dollars in fiscal 1992 to $4.4 billion dollars today, fiscal year 1998.

The President's goal is to enroll one million children in Head Start by the year 2002 a pretty good way, I might add, to start the new millennium and to double the Early Head Start program which serves infants and toddlers to 80,000.

And as an advocate of universal early childhood education, I support those goals, and I do that from a physically conservative standpoint, which leads me to believe that this is money well spent, that by spending on early childhood education and development we are attempting to get the most bang for that precious taxpayer buck.

So we have a lot of details that still have to be worked out. Improvement and expansion of the Head Start program is my primary goal. Now, we are going to be guided by several principles in this authorization, which I hope our witnesses today can speak to in their testimony. We want to strengthen Head Start's education and professional development components.

There is an ongoing debate in the Congress between quality versus quantity. I don't think that they are mutually exclusive, but I will say that there has to be at least as much emphasis given to improving the quality of Head Start as to expanding the program's services to include more young people and their parents.

We want to increase collaboration between Head Start and state welfare reform efforts. This is critically important, and it is beginning to change the face of Head Start, the way Head Start looks. Head Start now typically operates only part time serving primarily four year olds, as all of you who are program operators or have personal involvement and familiarity with the program know.

But as more women enter the labor force, which is a process being accelerated across America today by welfare reform and the implementation of tough welfare laws on a state-wide, state basis there is a push underway to pair Head Start with other programs to provide full-time care, and with new research showing the importance of early childhood brain development, we also want to expand services to infants and toddlers.

So Head Start is going to change as more and more women are working, and the mechanics are going to change, but we hope that the original philosophy with respect to the families and underprivileged children will remain the same.

The last goal is to establish more accountability for Head Start, especially at the local level. We want to hold Head Start program operators accountable for proven results. Head Start now serves an estimated 830 children. It is by far the largest federal preschool or early childhood program.

I believe we have to insure that education services provided by Head Start reflect this current research on early childhood development, research that indicates that three and four year olds have very curious and fertile brains, and that we should be sowing the seeds of knowledge that will bloom into academic success later.

An excellent example of that kind of research and I highly recommend it is the National Research Council's recent report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. That report specifically identifies developmental and cognitive accomplishments that are essential steps in preparing preschool children to learn how to read.

Everyone agrees that Head Start has many beneficial components, including parental involvement, preventive health services, and linkages to the community. However, and I can't stress this point too strongly. If you remember only one thing about my opening remarks, it is we should never lose sight of the fact that the primary goal of Head Start is to develop school readiness skills in young children.

In fact, I happened to see an article, one of the staff was nice enough to give me a packet. It is dealing a little bit with some of the controversy that has occurred here locally in McAllen. In bold is an excerpt that says, "In Hidalgo County, Head Start gets about 14 million annually of federal dollars to help poor preschool children prepare for grade school. The children are given meals, taught proper hygiene, and learn socialization skills."

It doesn't say anything about school readiness or the academic component of Head Start, which is, again, as far as I am concerned, the most essential element of Head Start.

Children participating in a Head Start program should start school as prepared, if not better prepared than their peers. In short, Head Start should insure a successful transition to kindergarten. It should insure that a child enters the public schools ready able to learn.

Another key theme of reauthorization will be evaluating and anticipating the impact of welfare reform, as I said. And it is something that is incorporated into the Senate version of the Head Start reauthorization.

How is Head Start adapting in this age of welfare reform? I would like to know today how it is adapting here in McAllen, in Hidalgo County, in the state of Texas as Texas implements welfare reform.

Head Start has traditionally been a part-day school-year program. In recent years, more Head Start programs have been adding a full-day full-year model to their services, but reports indicate that Head Start is still woefully behind in serving the needs of working families.

The data collected by the Head Start Bureau reveals that about 40.1 percent of all Head Start enrollees were in need of full-day full-year child care. Yet, less than 10 percent actually received full-day full-year care through either their Head Start program or through a cooperative or what, I guess, the term being used these days is a wrap-around child care arrangement.

Although Head Start has gradually increased the number of full-day full-year slots, literally hundreds of thousands of Head Start families may be in need of quality full-time child care. We have to look at how to accelerate the creation of more full-day full-year slots to better serve the growing number of working families in need of such support.

So I think you have got to look at, if you will, a broad overview of where we are and some of the needs, important, even critical issues that we are looking at in the context of the reauthorization.

And again, I want to thank Congressman Hinojosa and the other members of our panel today for welcoming us here to McAllen. And I very much look forward to the testimony from our witnesses today. I know their experience and their knowledge from first-hand involvement here locally with the program will provide us with valuable input on the reauthorization of Head Start.

So with that, I am going to call forward our first panel of witnesses. And as they are seated, I am going to recognize Congressman Hinojosa to introduce each of our witnesses. I will tell the audience that we have gone a little bit longer than we normally do at the beginning of a hearing because of the unusual circumstances. We are here conducting a field hearing in McAllen, not back in Washington.

I will stress to our witnesses that they should be as brief as possible in their testimony to allow us more opportunity for interaction, because I think the members find the questions and answers, the give and take to be as important, if not more important than the written testimony.

And I will assure you that your entire statement will appear in the record, and that record will be available to all interested members of Congress and their staffs.

Congressman Hinojosa.

Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the benefit of the audience, we would like to say that prepared statements have been given to the congressmen, and we have read the material before coming to the hearing.

We are asking the presenters to avoid reading the entire text of the presentation you have prepared. You can refer to it, certainly, at any time, but let it come from the heart. You know what you wrote, and you know the material very well.

Each one of you represents an important component of this public hearing, and we want you to feel very comfortable. If you can speak to us and inform us as best as you can so that we can take this information from this field hearing and utilize it in the reauthorization of this program when we get back to Washington.

I would like to first introduce the first presenter. Ms. Lillian Quintanilla is chair of the Head Start Policy Council. She has two children enrolled in the Hidalgo County Head Start program and will share her observations with regard to the importance of parental involvement in the program.

The second presenter will be Ms. Irma Pena, Director of Hidalgo County's Head Start Family Services Department. She served as the interim executive director of Hidalgo County Head Start from 1995 through 1997 and has been with the program since its inception in 1981. She will reflect on her tenure as director.

The third and final presenter of the first panel will be Dr. Miguel de los Santos. He is department chair of the School Administration and Supervision at the University of Texas-Pan American. Dr. de los Santos holds a Ph.D in educational administration and is the former interim director of Hidalgo County Head Start. He will discuss governance and organizational issues he faced as the interim director.

And with that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask Ms. Quintanilla if she would begin her presentation.

Ms. Quintanilla. My name is Lillian Quintanilla. I am a parent in the Hidalgo Head Start program. Thank you for allowing me to testify before the subcommittee on behalf of the Hidalgo County Head Start program.

Chairman Riggs. Ms. Quintanilla, let me interrupt you for just a second. Can you hear her in the back? Could you move the microphone closer to you and speak directly into it.

That is much better. You need to turn the microphone just slightly so you are speaking directly into it.

Mr. Hinojosa. Would you begin once again, please.

Ms. Quintanilla. Okay. My name is Lillian Quintanilla. I am a parent in the Hidalgo County Head Start program. Thank you for allowing me to testify before this subcommittee on behalf of the Hidalgo County Head Start program.

I am a mother to three lovely children, ages four, five, and one. I can attest to the benefits that Head Start has to offer. Unfortunately, unlike my child, I did not have the opportunity to receive a head start in life.

I know for a fact that if I had attended a program like Head Start, I would not have stopped with a high school diploma. As a policy council member, I wanted to make a difference in the council and help in bringing the council together to start making decisions as a team and learn the process of agreeing and disagreeing and still remain one board and to never lose the vision and the purpose of Head Start and the policy council, which is to always remember the children do come first.

I always wanted to put in place additional training for parents and policy council members to give them more knowledge and a better understanding of what the program is about. Head Start has increased my self-esteem and my confidence to the point of where conducting public meetings and talking about issues have become second nature and make me realize that I want to continue my education.

This coming fall I plan to enroll at South Texas Community College and continue my education, knowing that it will be hard, but I am not afraid anymore. I know that I can do it, because Head Start has made me determined and aware that I have what it takes to accomplish a better future for me and my family.

This year the Hidalgo County Head Start program has broken new ground. In Hidalgo County, the Hidalgo County Commissioners Court, the grantee board, and the Hidalgo County policy council have joined together to share in the decision-making for the good of the program.

As a policy council member, I am very glad that now there is a governing body and not a governing person and that the team-building training that Head Start has taught me has proven useful during these difficult times.

We, the policy council and the Commissioners Court together, have chosen a new leader for Head Start, and I feel confident because of the difficulties we have experienced and surpassed, we will emerge with an even stronger program, and I am very confident in our new director, and I feel that giving him enough time, we will become one of the best programs in Texas.

As parents, we demand that funding for Head Start not only continue but that it be increased to provide quality services to the unfortunate children and families that still remain unserved in Hidalgo County.

The parents, staff, and community support, and dedication to the program is evident here today by our testimony, and we want you elected officials to know that the children of Hidalgo County do come first.

This is just something I thought of last night because I went to the Island for the Fourth of July, and I kept on hearing the words while we were seeing the fireworks display of President John F. Kennedy. They kept on repeating them. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

And I feel as a citizen of this country, I am asking you to help the children, our children, and offer them a Head Start in education that they so desperately need, because they are our future.

Thank you for allowing me this time, and thank you for your undivided attention, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Ms. Chairman. Lillian, as chair of the parents council, you speak for lots of parents, and so you are very special. We appreciate your statements, and we thank you for the work that you do as a volunteer.

If I may, I would like to ask you, since 1996 when we had the Welfare Reform Act pass through Congress, some vast changes are occurring in this region. Can you explain the impact of that welfare reform on your program?

Ms. Quintanilla. I feel that there is even a greater need now for the Head Start program, because a lot of people have been taken off, you know, off welfare because they don't have their citizenship, or even those parents who are getting part-time jobs and are going into the workforce need a safe educational, they offer nutritious meals to leave their children and feel safe that they have a place safe to leave them and that they are going to learn and that they are going to have everything that they need so that they are comfortable with going to work.

And I have to say that for those who have been taken off or because of welfare reform, or because of their citizenships that they don't have, Head Start has citizenship classes. So I think the need kind of is even greater now.

I feel it has affected our program tremendously, because we kind of take that place and help those parents go into the workforce.

And child care is very, very expensive these days. So I really think that it has impacted our program a whole lot, and I think that is one of the reasons why we need to keep on funding the program, because the need is there, and it is even greater now because of the welfare reform.

Chairman Riggs. Mr. Hinojosa, if you don't mind, what I would like to do is have the other two witnesses give their testimony, and then we will all three have an opportunity to ask questions of all three witness.

Mr. Hinojosa. That will be fine.

Chairman Riggs. It will flow a little bit better. Did you want to reintroduce Ms. Pena or recognize her for her testimony?

Mr. Hinojosa. Yes. Ms. Irma Pena was the acting interim executive director from 1995 to 1997, and hopefully you can help us with the overview of the program not only during the period that you served as the interim director, but also in the 18 years that you have been with the program. If you care to refer to your statement, please do so.

Ms. Pena. Good morning. First of all, I want to take an opportunity to thank all of you, particularly Congressman Hinojosa for your gracious invitation to allow me to testify here today, and also to welcome Congressman Riggs and Congressman Martinez to our very cool climate.

Chairman Riggs. I wasn't going to comment on that.

Ms. Pena. But certainly, we want to welcome you to our beautiful county, in particular, the city of McAllen. First of all, I do want to advise you that I feel honored to be able to testify in front of the hearing this morning.

Especially, I am very proud of Ms. Quintanilla. She is a parent, and there are many parents in the audience at this point in time, and it took a lot of guts, initiative, and fortitude for her to come forward and speak from her heart. And I know that she has done an excellent job, and she has got so much potential as many of our Head Start parents do, and I want to thank her.

I want to give you a little bit of the history of the Hidalgo County Head Start program. First, the Head Start program has been funded since 1965, but to date, it has served over 15 million children throughout the nation.

Here in the county since its inception, it has served over 50,000 children. The impact that it has given to our families throughout the county has been tremendous, particularly, in the fact that currently, most of our families, I believe it is close to 60 percent are under a $12,000-a-year income. And this is important to know.

When the program was funded in 1982 to Hidalgo County, when it became its grantee, it had a budget of $2,532,835 to serve 1,080 children. Currently, the program is serving 2,580 children with a budget of $11,891,393 with an additional $2,193,731 of local contributions.

Head Start is based on the premise that all children do share certain needs. And with this in mind, I would like to go into what Head Start philosophy is, particularly here within Hidalgo County.

It does rest on four basic principles, the first being a child can benefit most from a comprehensive disciplinary program to foster normal development and remedy problems. Secondly, parents are the primary educators of their children and must be directly involved with the program, and it is evident here.

Thirdly, the well-being of children is inextricably linked to the well-being of the entire family. And lastly, the partnerships with other agencies and organizations in the community are essential to meeting family needs.

The program concentrates its areas in three content areas, being early childhood development and health services, family and community partnerships, and program designing management. I would like to explore each area briefly, if I may.

In the area of early childhood development and health services, currently we do offer three different programs: A part-day program from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; a full-day program, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; and an extended-day program, which is from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. To meet the needs of our working families.

Each classroom is staffed with a teacher, a teacher assistant, parent volunteers, and a disability services aide when necessary. We are currently providing services, again, to 2,580 children with 10 percent of our enrollment being specifically geared for children with disabilities.

One of our highest points within the educational curriculum and the practices that go on in the Head Start classroom is geared towards developmentally appropriate practices. The curriculums that we are currently using, particularly a core curriculum, was developed jointly with the Hidalgo County Head Start staff and also the Region One Education Service Center, which is utilizing this curriculum not only within the Head Start programs, but also many of our school districts. So it is complementing what is taking place in the school district.

One of our biggest success stories has been our adult literacy program. We realize that successful children will come from successful parents, just like Ms. Quintanilla. We encourage advancement in education for our parents, and with that in mind, we had over 1,500 parents this past year participating in our literacy program, and we have had a very high success rate. Last year we had 150 parents acquire their GED. This is a big accomplishment for this program.

Within the health care services, part of the goal is to insure that every child and family will receive preventive health care and empower families the basic health knowledge of medical resources within the community.

In the health services entity, all Head Start children are provided with a full physical exam, also dental exams and follow-ups, and the linking of families to insure them of getting family health insurance through collaboration with, for example, of course, qualifying children through Medicaid, if we have children that are Medicaid recipients, the WIC program, the Hidalgo County Health Care Department, the Hidalgo County Indigent Services, the Clinica in Hidalgo, etc.

One of the big issues in regards to health services and services to children with disabilities is that we utilize our Head Start dollars as being the last resource. This is where the collaboration of agencies do come into play, and we feel very fortunate that we have a very strong alliance with our communities, but also with the county itself. And this is where the impact has made a major difference within our families.

In the area of nutrition, there is over 12,500 meals that are prepared daily through three of our central kitchens. And I will talk a little bit later on about some of the statistics that are some of the facts that we have provided for you.

In the area of mental health, the program is supported by a psychologist, licensed clinical social workers, and several MSWs. We provide crisis intervention, follow-up parenting classes, child observation and feedback to teachers and parents, play therapy, etc.

In the area of family and community partnerships, it is our goal that with parents and community resources that we establish mutual trust, identify family goals and strengths, and assist families to obtain self-sufficiency. This is a major issue for us. If I recall, I believe it was Congressman Riggs that talked about educating our parents and staff development.

One of the things that I do want to advise you is that nationwide, 30 percent of the staff are former parents or are current or former Head Start parents. And within Hidalgo County, we have got 49 percent of our staff that are current or former Head Start parents. This is a major factor.

Nationwide there is over 1,200,000 parents volunteering in their local programs. And within our Head Start program, this past school year we had 2,886 parent volunteers within our Head Start classrooms and in our program.

In the area of program management and governance, it has accomplished the shared responsibilities of the Commissioners Court, which is the grantee board, and the Head Start policy council. In order to oversee the delivery of high quality services to children and families in accordance to Head Start legislation, it is with their efforts that we must empower our parents to become actively participating in the shared decision-making process, and this has been happening within Hidalgo County Head Start.

The Hidalgo County policy council and the grantee board, again, broke new ground this year while working together in an atmosphere of camaraderie in jointly appointing a permanent director for this program.

Earlier, during the year, the Hidalgo County Commissioners Court presented a joint resolution restoring them to play a more active role in the decision-making process of the Head Start program. This action will allow for the program to become more productive in bringing different funding sources together for the benefit of Hidalgo County.

Additionally, it will strengthen the delivery of services to the community. As a staff member for the past 18 years and one of the only panelist for today that is a current staff member of Hidalgo County Head Start program, I can tell you from personal experience that I have seen the impact to families and also to communities that this program plays.

I want to implore you to not only reauthorize funding, but also to give additional funding, not only to Hidalgo County, but to all Head Start programs. It is very fundamental for the children of this nation. Thank you.

Chairman Riggs. Thank you, Ms. Pena. Let me just ask very quickly, is there a waiting list for…

Ms. Pena. Certainly.

Chairman Riggs. …for Head Start families here in Hidalgo County?

Ms. Pena. Yes. In many of our communities, particularly, as an example, in Edinburg, I believe we have got services for about, let me go more specifically here to McAllen, because we are here in the community of McAllen.

Here in McAllen, we do serve 350 children, and currently, we have got over 300 children on the waiting list.

Chairman Riggs. And do you know that those 300 children on the waiting list would be eligible?

Ms. Pena. Yes. These are income-eligible families. As a matter of fact, we do rank them according to income eligibility, of course, by priority based on working status and so forth, and again, encouraging education.

In fact we have right now here in McAllen one of the first to have a Head Start program within the South Texas Community College, and we are very proud of this program because, again, this is a collaboration with the community college, but with the Hidalgo County Head Start program, we provide services to their student population that is income eligible in surrounding areas or surrounding neighborhoods.

And we are about to enter an agreement with the University of Texas-Pan American to do basically the same thing in utilizing these schools as being lab schools for those early childhood development programs.

Chairman Riggs. Good. Congressman Hinojosa.

Mr. Hinojosa. I would like to move forward with the next presenter, Dr. Miguel de los Santos, a friend of the community and the region and certainly one who has been a very strong spokesman in the education community, and we welcome you, Dr. de los Santos.

Dr. de los Santos. Thank you, Congressman. With your permission, what I would like to do is read a shortened draft in the essence of time, because when I get away from my context, I can talk all day, and I am going to try to keep it to about five or six minutes. My students will testify to that.

Chairman Riggs, Congressman Hinojosa, and Congressman Martinez, good morning, and thank you very much for the opportunity and for being in South Texas this morning. I am one that is honored by your presence and am hopeful that the result of the hearings will be your continued and expanded support for our young children and families in Hidalgo County and throughout the country.

My name is Miguel de los Santos, and although I am currently the chair of the Educational Leadership Department at the University of Texas-Pan American, I am before you today simply as a citizen and a 32-year veteran educator of socioeconomically disadvantaged youth throughout the state of Texas.

In 1996-97, I had occasion to serve as a policy council member as interim program director for the Hidalgo County Head Start program. From that experience I have drawn some conclusions and formulated a number of recommendations that I believe will make a good program better.

One such conclusion regards the urgency for this committee and our national leadership as a whole to commit to continuing an aggressive advocacy for the health, education, social, and parental needs of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged population of young children in our country.

This must be demonstrated through increased funding to serve more children and through adjustments and modifications to current rules and regulations which currently govern Head Start programs.

Head Start policy manual 70.2, the parents, was issued on August 10th, 1970, and reprinted in 1992, and it states, quote, "If Head Start children are to reach their fullest potential, there must be an opportunity for Head Start parents to influence the character of programs affecting the development of their children," end quote.

The author should be commended and thanked. All of the recent research on parental involvement in the public schools indicates that children of parents who are involved are generally more successful in school both academically and socially.

If success is the result, who could argue against increased parental participation in programs that directly affect their children. The manual also specifies the exact functions and degrees of responsibility for governance or administration for the parent policy council, as well as the program director, the grantee agency or delegate agency, and the executive director.

On November 5th, 1996, in the federal registrar was printed, "The final rule for Head Start program performance standards," and it describes program governance exactly as a 1970s version of manual 70.2. I liberally quote from 70.2 the final rule only to establish that the issue of mandated training for parents and community representatives as members of policy council is critical.

We hold councils responsible for the functions of planning, general administration, personnel administration, grant application process, and evaluation. Yet, formal training in these areas is clearly absent from both the 1970 and '96 versions of the manual.

In Hidalgo County alone, the policy council is expected to oversee a budget in excess of $13 million dollars to serve nearly 3,000 children through the efforts of several hundred employees. This monumental task is expected with no requirement for formal training.

Staff development training is a systematic process utilized by school districts to improve or influence professional knowledge, practices, skills, beliefs, attitudes, and understanding of a program or personnel.

In Texas, the Texas Education Code governs the training and orientation of more than 7,000 school board members in more than 1,000 school districts, and the law simply states that the board of education shall provide state board of education shall provide training, 20 hours minimum, the first year for independent school district trustees, and that a trustee must complete any training required by a state board of education.

I strongly recommend that this committee cause the inclusion in the final rule or in the new law of a strict requirement for training of both parent and community representatives who will serve on parent policy councils of Head Start programs across the nation. It is only fair and prudent that they be fully prepared to execute their duties equipped with further knowledge and expertise.

I recommend that a minimum of 20 hours of training be completed before any decision-making by a new council transpires. Additionally, the council should undergo continued inservice development activities throughout their tenure. This type of required training would improve the quality of decision-making by all policy councils.

Further, as with Texas school boards, policy council members who have not received training in specific areas should not be allowed to participate in decision-making in those areas. As an example, school boards in Texas must receive training before they evaluate their superintendents. This I use as an example, that evaluations be done by policy council members who have specifically trained in the evaluation, for example, of a Head Start director. There are many other examples.

Governance problems generally occur as a result of philosophical or political differences among members of a policy council. One major concern, which I personally experienced as program director whose major responsibility is the day-to-day operation of the program, was with regard to the 51-percent majority rule.

The rule states that 51 percent of the policy council must be parents, and in the case of Hidalgo County Head Start, the local bylaws dictate that a quorum for a meeting shall be comprised of no less than 51 percent of the total policy council's membership, and of that quorum, at least 51 percent must be parent members of the policy council.

Simply because of the philosophical, political, or whatever reasons, a parent group can, in fact, immobilize business by simply boycotting legal meetings, and this can jeopardize the business of serving children. I do not believe this was the intent or ever will be the intent of Congress or of DHHS.

Persons who serve as community representatives are also highly committed, dedicated, and experienced individuals who seek to work with parents and community for the well-being of the young children and families. The program's success, after all, will reflect the future success of respective communities.

I recommend that the issue of balancing power among parents and community representatives be addressed. I also recommend that the local policies, which may even remotely, negatively affect the program, be modified by order of the Department of Health and Human Services, or, if not modified by the local program's, be disallowed by DHHS.

I also firmly believe that DHHS will better serve local programs by stepping in assertively and administering a program which may be experiencing major governance or programmatic problems.

Every effort should be given to a local agency to work out their own problems. However at any time that a program seems to be at risk of failure, DHHS would consider the expedient assignment of a program monitor or master to insure that that program services to children and families continues smoothly while the problems are resolved.

The monitor or master's decision supersede even the policy council. It is not uncommon to see the Texas Education Agency enforce this process on Texas school districts which experience major governance problems.

Simply, the integrity of Head Start and the education of the children should never be compromised due to quarreling adults. If a governance problem persists for more than a couple of months, DHHS should take over until the governance problems are resolved. This type of intervention will accelerate the resolution of local problems. Simply, none of us wants an outsider running our household.

Finally, the Hidalgo County Head Start program is very much interested in increasing the participation of four and five year olds and expanding the program to serve children ages zero to three. However the identification of facilities to rent is somewhat difficult in smaller communities.

Offers by DHHS for expansion of program should include funds for buildings, as well as for maintenance and operations. This would increase the applications for funding and increase the capital assets of local programs which are likely to be serving young children in Texas and across the country for decades to come.

In conclusion, I thank you for the opportunity to testify. I thank you for listening and for giving your consideration to the issues that I have raised for the continued improvement of Head Start in Hidalgo County in Texas and throughout the United States.

Chairman Riggs. Thank you, Dr. de los Santos. And let me just say, we now sort of segue to the question-and-answer phase of this first panel before calling to order our second panel of witnesses.

I am going to ask just a couple of very brief questions and then turn to my colleague Congressman Hinojosa for his questions and then Congressman Martinez and then back to me. And then we will see if we want to go around again.

The normal procedure would be that I would ask questions first and then recognize the ranking member, but again, because we are in Congressman Hinojosa's district, we want to accord him that particular courtesy, and hopefully, he will kind of guide our questions as well.

The very first thing I want to ask Ms. Quintanilla is, do you agree with Dr. de los Santos' recommendations that there be some sort of mandatory training for policy council members?

Ms. Quintanilla. Yes, definitely. I think that what he said is true. In fact, this year the parent policy council amended our bylaws.

We used to serve from September 1st to August 31st. We changed that and are serving now from, they changed it this year, from October 15th to October 14th, reason being that we thought changing that will give the parents more time to be trained before they actually serve on the board, because it was done really quick.

Within a week or two weeks you had your center meeting. You pick your center committee, then that following weekend you pick your policy council member, then a week later you are on the policy council and you are making decisions that you know nothing about.

And I think that we need to be more informed of what the program is about. We need to do more training. And we have done something, but I know that there is more to do.

Chairman Riggs. There is a need for more formal in-depth training.

Ms. Quintanilla. Right.

Chairman Riggs. What kind of training did you receive when you agreed to volunteer as a policy council member with respect to your governance responsibilities?

Ms. Quintanilla. We had someone come down from Texas Tech. He kind of went over our performance standards. We had a briefing from each component director letting us know about that component. It was done in a weekend.

But we still need more training. I mean, what do I know about a budget? You know, I see these numbers. It is like, "Okay. If you say this is the way it's supposed to be," I really think we need more training on the budget, what the numbers are supposed to look like.

There is a great need for more training. I feel that the whole point of having parents involved was not to be educated, but and to just be involved in what is happening with your children, to get the parents in there.

But then, times have changed. Things have changed. The program has grown a whole lot. The amount of money that the program is getting is different than what it had started out with way back when, 1965 or 1980.

So I think that has a reason. I don't think it was meant to be that way. I don't think it was meant for us to be educated and stuff like that. And I am not saying that we do need to be educated. I am just saying that training would help.

Chairman Riggs. I want to give you the opportunity to recognize any of your fellow policy council members who might be in attendance at today's hearing. I don't know if you would like to introduce them, or if there are other policy council members present, whether we could just ask them to stand and be recognized. Are any other policy council members present?

Ms. Quintanilla. I do see one in the back. She is a community representative. Her name is Lydia Silva, and I saw Elisa Munoz. She is in the back. She is also a community representative. And then we have Janie Guajardo, who is also a community representative.

Chairman Riggs. Very good. Ladies, thank you for being here today.

Ms. Quintanilla. Oh, we have another parent, Carmen Meza. She is in the back in the light green.

Chairman Riggs. So four other policy council members are here. Very good. Congressman Hinojosa.

Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Chairman Riggs. Lillian, other than additional funding and board member training, what federal assistance would help you achieve your desired results in the Hidalgo County Head Start program?

Ms. Quintanilla. Other than additional funding. Well, it all has to come from funding, but I think our literacy program, I think if there was some kind of, financial aid specifically for Head Start parents for them to continue their education or get an education, maybe some kind of scholarships for parents that want to go on with their education.

I don't know. Am I answering right? Am I in the right field? Is that what you are trying to talk about?

Mr. Hinojosa. If I understand your recommendation, you think that there should be opportunities for the parents of these children.

Ms. Quintanilla. To be more educated.

Mr. Hinojosa. And there are programs other than Head Start that would be available to help them possibly complete high school, if they did not finish, or if they did finish or have a GED and would like to go to the community college. We probably have the greatest opportunity since the GI bill, bigger and better than the GI bill, that is, student financial aid to go to South Texas Community College or to the University of Texas-Pan American.

And then, of course, there are other programs for job training now available. So what you are referring to is available, and we simply need to get some counselors to come and make that information available to all those parents and others whom you are referring to.

Ms. Quintanilla. Yes.

Mr. Hinojosa. But I was really referring to partnerships with the community. I think that I heard Irma say that there were about $12 million dollars coming from the federal government and an additional $2 million dollars from other sources.

I was hoping that you could expand, if you have discussed with your board members and others, as to what other sources that you could tap onto, human or financial resources, to achieve the result that you-all want in the program.

If you haven't, give that some thought. I don't want to put you in a situation that is difficult, but another question that I have, and this one is for Irma. How successful is our Hidalgo County Head Start program at using federal dollars to leverage local and private support in order to expand the existing program and serve the children and the families in Hidalgo County?

Ms. Pena. Well, as I described earlier, the $2 million plus dollars of local support is indicative to what our local program is doing at this point in time. Much of the support that we receive currently is through the areas, particularly, for health services.

We have providers that will allow us In-kind services. We have consultants that do training for our staff at 0 rate, if you want to call it. Also our community businesses at large, we have several functions that take place throughout the year that is supported solely through that effort.

One of our projects is the Jack and Jill Closet. The Jack and Jill Closet is a clothing assistance program that provides clothing for the neediest of our children. We usually serve about 10 percent or more, depending on the year and the need, of course.

But that particular program is supplemented through fund-raising activities that take place throughout the year from our local center communities, and also donations from different community businesses.

Another project that we have been doing for, I believe, three years now is our Christmas Carnival, which is a project of actually providing a day at the carnival for all of our kids. And this is supported solely through donations by community organizations through endowments of anywhere from $500 to $100, etc., and that is full support of community.

Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you. I would like to ask Dr. de los Santos, he makes some very interesting points and very strong recommendations as we look at the reauthorization. I want to ask you a couple of questions on the program monitoring, and DHHS involvement.

We have had some concerns with our program here in Hidalgo County. At times wecouldn't get a quorum among other kinds of problems and concerns over the last three years. Did DHHS step in when our program was in disarray and in the situation that you described?

Dr. de los Santos. Yes. At our request, DHHS stepped in when we asked them to come and visit with us in terms of a mediation type of procedure to try to help us work out our problems.

The program itself continues to be very successful. Fortunately, what happens, you know, when teachers close their classroom doors they get interested in the kids, and things are happening with kids all across Hidalgo County.

Fortunately, the differences that we had among ourselves, like I said, and my understanding is that there has been a lot of work on it this year and many things are being worked out.

But my statements were with reference to when a program was in the kind of situation that ours was a year ago, that there was so much confusion among ourselves, policy council members and I was in the middle of it, by the way. I am not pointing fingers at anyone else. Then I think an agency, such as DHHS, should come in and say, "You know, if you guys can't do it yourselves, we will do it for you. Get your act together, and then we will give it back to you."

And if I have a criticism of DHHS, it is that the policy council serves for one year, and one year passes by very quickly, and then you have a new policy council, and I don't think there is a year to spend on trying to get our act together. I feel like if we need outside pressure, we should have outside pressure.

Mr. Hinojosa. Lastly, Dr. de los Santos, you spoke about our looking at reauthorization and including mandatory training for our board members, and I agree with you. I am sure you are drawing on your experience as a school superintendent, and I can draw on the experiences of being a local school board member and a state board member, I know how helpful it has been to offer that kind of training to school board members who handle budgets of this size.

So I strongly agree with both of you, and we will address this in the reauthorization. And lastly, I think that we certainly need to address and study the proposal that you mentioned on the balance of power. I think that was very interesting, and we certainly are going to look into it with Frank with the assistance and leadership of Chairman Frank Riggs.

We thank you for a fine presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman Riggs. Thank you. And before I recognize Congressman Martinez, may I just follow up on a question that you asked, because I want to make sure that we are very clear with respect to Dr. de los Santos' testimony here.

Are you testifying that you feel the federal government should have intervened earlier in the ongoing dispute or problems here with respect to the Hidalgo County Head Start program?

Dr. de los Santos. I am testifying that at a point when we called five or six meetings in a roll and we couldn't get a quorum to meet, and the business of children must go on, and we asked the federal government to come in and assist us, that they continued to say, "No. It is local control, local control, local control."

Chairman Riggs. Did you have to ask DHHS to intervene?

Dr. de los Santos. Yes, we did.

Chairman Riggs. And they did not initiate any contact with you? They were not aware of the problems?

Dr. de los Santos. They were aware. We kept them posted all along, but we had to ask them to come in and work with us for a mediation process.

Chairman Riggs. And this was during your tenure as the interim executive director?

Dr. de los Santos. Yes, sir, it was.

Chairman Riggs. Okay. Thank you. Congressman Martinez.

Mr. Martinez. Thank you. A couple of things. One is, when you suggest that the members of policy council only serve one year, is that the general situation that occurred here?

Let me explain why I am asking the question. It is becauseaccording to the regulations, a parent has to have a child enrolled in the program to be on the policy council. But in a lot of cases, that parent may have more than one child, and so that when one child graduated from Head Start, another child was coming in, and the parent could remain on that policy council.

Has it been a policy here to remove that person after they have served that year regardless if they have another child in the program?

Dr. de los Santos. No. I am glad you asked that question. There is some continuity with some parents who are reelected. I believe it is three years that a parent can serve or a community representative can serve.

Mr. Martinez. Well, let me interrupt you for a minute. That was the next thing I was going to suggest, is that the rules allow for a parent to serve beyond the time that the child is in the program. Sometimes that is good. Sometimes it not, and I will get into that later. So there are reasons why you don't have to serve only one term.

Dr. de los Santos. I did not, I apologize if I came across saying that one term and it is over. There are many, many members who serve two years, up to three years.

Mr. Martinez. Yes. The reason I bring that up too is due to one of the other statements you made is in regard to the training.

When I was sitting in Mr. Riggs' place as chairman of the committee that had jurisdiction over Head Start, and last time we authorized the Act, we wanted both the Republicans and the Democrats on that committee to participate fully. One of the key people on that committee too at the time was Susan Molinari, who served on that committee with one goal in mind, to improve the quality of Head Start.

And almost everybody on that committee said, "If there is anything we do in this reauthorization, it must be to improve the quality of Head Start." It is hard to determine what is quality.

But we set certain things in place, and one of them was to make sure that the parents had the training that you talked about. And in the regulation it does say that the funding that is provided for quality is to provide training necessary to improve the qualifications of the staff of the Head Start agencies and to support the staff training, child counseling, and other services necessary to address the problems of the children, which include the training of the parents in our policy committee.

So training is in place. I don't know why it is that somehow or another, possibly the executive director, who should be primarily responsible for making sure that everybody that is involved in the program know all the things that are available from the Department of Health and Human Services, requires the Department of Health and Human Services to provide that assistance.

Because in many cases, you are unaware of something that is available to you in the program, so don't take advantage of it. And sure, they are not going to come forward and volunteer it, which I think they should, to make sure that you are running a good program.

The whole idea in the reauthorization was to try to improve the quality of the program. It does us no good to pass the law to do it, if, in fact, the agency that is charged with overseeing this is not going to carry it forward.

In that regard, I sympathize with you when you say that they knew you had problems and didn't step in. You are addressing in part of your testimony the need to balance the power. I think that is one of the very important things I have been trying to get across both in my conversation with Hinojosa and Chairman Frank Riggs. Because too many times literal interpretations of what the regulations say and what the law says give rise to the parent council believing they have the ultimate power over the grantee board. And that is not the way it was intended.

It was always intended that the parents should have a say in what happens to their children in the programs and how their programs are run, but never to give them veto power, like you say, by boycotting meetings or doing things like that, that just because they have a difference of opinion for whatever reason, philosophically or politically or whatever, they disrupt the operation, because it really affects the children.

So I think that is something we really do need to address how we are going to create that balance of power so the parents still have the say and yet be involved, as involved as we want them to be involved.

There is a good example here. The reason you involve them, is that in almost every case in the past years that I have been on the committee that oversees Head Start, at various hearings that I held, and that others held before I was the chairman, we had cases of people coming forward, like this young lady, realizing that now that her children were getting this help, they needed to get even more educated themselves to be able to help their children go on to be a success.

In LA there was a young lady who was a dropout of high school, who by the time she was testifying before us had seen her three children go through Head Start, and was finishing up her master's. It is tremendous incentive. So I think that we need to do something about that.

There was one other statement that you made Ms. Quintanilla did I come close?

Ms. Quintanilla. Quintanilla.

Mr. Martinez. Quintanilla? When you say you are glad that there is a governing body now rather than a governing person, what did you mean by that?

Ms. Quintanilla. Well, just like Ms. Pena stated, there was a joint resolution with the Commissioners Court. Now the whole Commissioners Court is the grantee board.

Prior to that, the funding was given to the grantee board, which was Commissioners Court, but they had one person oversee it, which was the executive director, the county judge at that time.

The program director used to just have to go to the executive director, to the judge at that time, and it was just getting his approval.

Mr. Martinez. One individual.

Ms. Quintanilla. Yes. One individual. And he was the one that would recommend all community reps. He would recommend all five.

This year it was done differently. In fact, I have to give Judge Cuellar some credit because he gave the opportunity to the Commissioners to go ahead and recommend a community rep before this joint resolution had been passed.

So each Commissioner this year recommended a community rep, unlike before, it was the judge, the former judge recommending all five community representatives. So now they are overseeing the program as a board, the whole grantee. Now, in order to get approval for whatever, they now need to go to the Commissioners Court and get the approval of the Commissioners Court as a whole. Now the judge can't have a say by himself.

Mr. Martinez. Do the parents have a say in who that appointee is? Can they reject him?

Ms. Quintanilla. Yes. We have the right to approve or disapprove.

Mr. Martinez. Because that was never intended. It was always intended there should be an advisory board that worked in conjunction with the the policy council.

And that is the problem we have had. I will give you a very good example in my own district. There was a program that was funded by the super grantee, the Los Angeles County Board of Education. And the Los Angeles County Board of Education in many cases is reluctant to step in when there are problems until they get too bad.

There was embezzlement in a local program. And the rectifying of that embezzlement situation then led to the controversy between the policy board and the board of directors of that particular program until finally the board of directors said, "You know, we don't have to apply for the grant from the LA Board of Education" and refused to accept the grant as a result of the Board of Education."

Now, they had to flounder around to find other agencies to take over programs in that community, because by law, the monies have to stay in that community. They can't be removed from that community, and the service must continue. So they then should leave it up to them. And here again, DHHS never stepped in while the Board of Education sat with their arms folded.

So I think that you are right, physician to the saints that is what your name says physician of the saints. Dr. de los Santos.

So you are absolutely right. I think there is something we need to do about that, because those kinds of things can happen.

Ms. Quintanilla. I can't speak for what happened prior to me being on the policy council on how things were done or why things were done the way they were. I don't know what happened. I was not around.

But I can tell you that as of this year, I can really see that the Commissioners Court is coming together. They are trying to get more involved, and they are trying to work with us. I am confident to saying that I think things are going to start getting better.

Mr. Martinez. Well, I am glad that you have got this problem straightened out to some degree, but I think that we still need to put something in place so that it can never happen again.

Ms. Quintanilla. Yes, I agree with you.

Mr. Martinez. Something that balances the powers, as you say, Doctor, a mechanism by which we won't wait until something of this catastrophic nature occurs before DHHS does its job, or any grantee does its job. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman Riggs. Thank you, Congressman Martinez. I am going to ask several questions of these witnesses, and I am going to ask for brief responses, because I would like to conclude this first panel by 10:30 a.m.

The first thing I would like to know, Ms. Quintanilla, do the parents help hire the teachers and help develop the curriculum?

Ms. Quintanilla. There is an advisory like subcommittee for the education components, right, Ms. Pena? And some former parents are on that committee or current parents are on that committee.

Chairman Riggs. All right. Let me go to Ms. Pena. Would you characterize the extent of the parents' involvement in hiring teachers or helping to develop curriculum?

Ms. Pena. Certainly. In reference to the hiring of teachers and hiring of all staff, actually, there is a subcommittee within the policy council, personnel committee, which will review all applicants, and they will make a recommendation to the policy council before hiring any staff members.

And, of course, being the fact that we do have a majority of our parents or a majority of our council members are parents, in the area of education and curriculum development we have an education advisory committee that is composed of different professionals in the area of education, but also parents from the different geographic areas that are involved in curriculum development and includes the curriculum that was developed in collaboration with Region I Education Service Center.

Chairman Riggs. Do you have any kind of program encouraging fathers to take a more active role?

Ms. Pena. We have a very large father participation. As a matter of fact, three of our council members, half of our parent representatives within our policy council are male. Okay?

Chairman Riggs. It is certainly okay by me.

Ms. Pena. And many of our, I don't have the specific figures, but I want to say that approximately about anywhere from 35 to 45 percent of our parent volunteers are male participants, along with becoming officers at the individual center committees.

We see that large amount of male-parent participation, particularly, when we do a leadership training for all center committee officers, and this is where the selection of the policy council members comes sometimes.

Chairman Riggs. I see. Now, here locally in Hidalgo County, in McAllen, is Head Start funding being commingled with any other federal funding to expand services especially for TANF beneficiaries, parents participating in the welfare or work fair program?

Ms. Pena. Well, we do have a collaboration project, but there is no commingling of funds.

Chairman Riggs. Okay. What about, do you get any funding from the federal day care…

Ms. Pena. No.

Chairman Riggs. …block grant?

Ms. Pena. No.

Chairman Riggs. You do not?

Ms. Pena. No. Not the Hidalgo County Head Start program.

Chairman Riggs. Pardon?

Ms. Pena. Not the Hidalgo County Head Start program.

Chairman Riggs. Would that be some other entity that provides that kind of service locally?

Ms. Pena. Are you talking about child care management systems? Yes. Well, there are other entities, like, for example, Texas Migrant Council, that do handle the child care management systems funding.

Chairman Riggs. Let me tell you why I ask. It is a follow-up to what Congressman Hinojosa asked, and that is under the federal welfare reform law, we substantially increased taxpayer funding for child care.

We recognized that quality child care is one of the principal concerns, obviously, in the need the parent has in making that difficult transition from welfare to work. But if that funding is not coming down locally here, I am wondering if that funding is coordinated with Head Start, because it seems like a logical partnership.

Mr. Hinojosa. Will the Chairman yield?

Chairman Riggs. Of course.

Mr. Hinojosa. Chairman Riggs, as Irma pointed out, the Texas Migrant Council also runs another Head Start program with approximately 2,500 students. Their budget is about 84 million dollars, and they have much broader services that include day care services and many other services, too many to enumerate at this hearing.

But they also, of course, are helping here in the Rio Grande Valley. Getting back on one of the points that you were trying to make about the staff and their training the teachers. How many of the folks who really teach, not aides, but the teachers. How many have bachelor's degrees?

Ms. Pena. None.

Ms. Quintanilla. None.

Mr. Hinojosa. How many have master's degrees?

Chairman Riggs. Well, did both the witnesses get a chance to respond? Did you both say none? Is that correct?

Ms. Pena. No. Currently we do not have any.

Mr. Hinojosa. How many have master's degrees?

Ms. Quintanilla. None.

Mr. Hinojosa. None? How many have associate degrees?

Ms. Pena. We have a number of our teaching staff currently with associate degrees.

Mr. Hinojosa. Would you say 10? 20?

Ms. Pena. I don't recall at this time. The majority of our, as a matter of a fact, all of our staff, in accordance with Head Start federal regulations, our teaching staff do have a child development associate credential, which is an initiative through the Head Start program that has been in existence for a number of years, and we have been very successful. About 75 percent of our teaching assistants also have a child development associate degree.

Mr. Hinojosa. So that type of credential would be more than an associate degree of the community college or less than?

Ms. Pena. It is difficult to say. I want to say it is less.

Mr. Hinojosa. Less than?

Ms. Pena. Yes.

Mr. Hinojosa. Okay. That is fine. And lastly, could you give us an idea of how much is being paid to these individuals who are teaching our children?

Ms. Pena. Oh, my goodness. Now, that I can't recall the figures at this point in time. I do know that our teaching staff…

Mr. Hinojosa. Could you defer to Dr. de los Santos? Do you know the answer to that question, Dr. de los Santos?

Dr. de los Santos. I don't know the exact numbers, but I remember that they are miserable. I remember that, because in looking at the center directors' salaries at one time, these are folks that, in essence, serve as principals in small campuses, even though they don't have the training of principals.

I remember some of them making $16, $17, $18,000 a year. This is the person that is in charge of the program. So the teachers were not very much above minimum wage.

Mr. Hinojosa. Not much above minimum wage?

Ms. Pena. Right.

Dr. de los Santos. I am going to say $12 or $13,000 a year.

Ms. Pena. Yes. That is about the correct amount.

Mr. Martinez. Would the Chairman yield?

Mr. Hinojosa. Yes, I would.

Chairman Riggs. May I just claim my time just before you yield to Congressman Martinez just to ask how, I am glad Congressman Hinojosa asked that question. I intended to ask it.

How would that average out then, what you described as being minimum wage or barely above minimum wage, compare with the average salary of an elementary school teacher in McAllen or Hidalgo County?

Dr. de los Santos. They are close to minimum wage also, but considerably less. A beginning teacher in Hidalgo County average would be about $25, $26,000 a year, fresh out of college, no experience.

Like I said, a teacher at a Head Start center might be, and they are both for nine months of actual work. Actually for teachers it is closer to ten months. The Head Start, if I remember the budgets correctly, it has been more than a year. It is closer to $11, $12,000 year. It is considerably less.

Chairman Riggs. I yield to Congressman Martinez.

Mr. Martinez. Well, that was the question I was going to ask. But to just illustrate right now, there is some concern, with increasing the quality of the Head Start programs by requiring teachers to have a four-year degree.

The funding for Head Start programs would almost have to double if you did that, and if you double the salaries of the teachers by going to qualified teaching credential teachers, you then are going to diminish the moneys available to serve a number of children.

So you are going to give something up for something else. You may improve the quality. There is no doubt you would improve the quality with certified teachers, but then are we going to expand the funding to continue to serve the number of people we are serving?

Because right now, you serve in Hidalgo County 350, and there are 300 on a waiting list. That is almost as many as being served in McAllen. So that, you know, is a real tough situation for someone to face if they really want to do it.

Let me ask you the most obvious question in this whole debate about whether we need to require advanced degrees. It might improve the quality of the teachers and the education of the children. That is not necessarily true, but you might assume it would be.

How much advantage would that be to the child?

I mean, the people that are doing the job now, are they doing an adequate job to get these kids ready for school?

Ms. Quintanilla. I want to say something. Excuse me. Going back to that, I think that they are doing a wonderful job. I am speaking as a parent. I know that my daughter's teacher, even now she misses her. She is like, "Can I go visit her? Is she there at the Head Start center?" We pass by, she is like, "Is my teacher there?" I am, like, "No."

So they are doing a real good job. And I think the reason they don't have degrees is because they may have been former parents. So if you get educated or degreed teachers in there, you are taking from the parents.

Parents have the opportunity to climb that ladder. They start off as a teacher assistant. They get their CDA credential, then they go to a teacher. So I really don't think that it would be much of a difference. In fact, I think you would hurt the program more if you took that and said, "Okay. We are going to get a degreed person in there to be teaching."

I think that the teachers we have now are doing a wonderful job. I think we just need to get out there and serve more children, and I think as a parent just having the training, having Ms. Pena train me and telling me what I needed to do and what needed to be served and just keep on getting that technical training. Without a degree, I could do just as good.

Ms. Pena. To piggyback on that, if I may, what I would like to say is that I do feel that if required quality training is provided or quality teachers, if you would call it degreed teachers, which I have tendency to have a different opinion, but I would implore that funding be provided in order to get our teachers, our CDA teachers, to acquire their bachelor's degree in early childhood development and then pay them to stay within the Head Start program, and not for them to go into the public school system. That is very important.

Ms. Quintanilla. You need not scare the parents and say, "Oh, no, you need to have a degree to become a teacher for Head Start." You need not scare them away. You know, you need to give them that hope that they can do it.

And once they get in there, then you get the training in there, and then you make them feel like "I could go to college, and I could be that teacher with the degree." But you can't scare them that way.

Dr. de los Santos. Obviously, if you have fully certified trained teachers in early childhood development, chances are that they would do a better job than persons who are not so trained.

The cost we talked about would be more than double. The other problem that you would experience is that just here, and I would suspect nationally that there is a shortage of early childhood education teachers.

If you were to turn over this program right now to public schools, for example, and they were to employ nothing but certified teachers, you would need overnight 150 to 200 certified teachers. And I can take you to any campus, not school districts, campuses across the Valley, and chances are that every single one of those elementary schools will need an early childhood teacher right now.

There is a great need in that area. My daughter just finished college in that area, and she could pick any campus in the Valley for that matter. I am not saying that we should not consider going in that direction, but there are a lot of obstacles that would prevent us from getting there over a short period of time.

I think if it is going to be a goal, it needs to be a long, long range goal.

Mr. Hinojosa. Mr. Chairman, I know that you wanted to conclude the first panel about this time, and I would like to make some concluding remarks.

One is that I agree with you that individuals who teach children are not in it for the money that they are paid. They are in it because of the feelings that they have in their heart for teaching children, and it is obvious. It really is.

However, we are going to be listening in the second panel to some exemplary programs in other parts of the state, and we will hear how much is being paid and how they are certified and how they are trained, those who teach the children. And I think it will be very interesting to make some comparisons.

Our children are entitled to the very best that is available, not only in San Antonio and in Houston and in Dallas or Boston or California or New York. Our children should be given the best that is available.

And in looking at the numbers that were given to us by one of the looking at yours, Irma. You said that in 1982, you started with a budget of $2 1/2 million dollars with 1,080 children. So that, in simple math, you divide those two numbers, we were spending $2,345 per child.

In 1998, we received, I believe, $14,885,000, and if you divide that by 2,580, it converts to $5,769 per child, which is about a 146 percent increase. What is misleading to the public about this information is that you probably have to pay the rent for the centers that rent to teach the children.

And you mentioned, Dr. de los Santos, that we were short of centers. We were short of space. And so again, the numbers can be taken by whomever is making a statement and say that it is being misused or mishandled or whatever.

The important thing, though, is that we are here to see how we can make some corrective changes, some constructive changes that in the end will help prepare our children to be school ready, as Chairman Riggs stated in the opening remarks he made.

So it will be interesting for us to now listen to the second panel and make some comparisons. Thank you.

Chairman Riggs. Thank you, Congressman Hinojosa. And I just want to conclude by perhaps putting in perspective this whole funding issue, because it is a very, very difficult one, particularly when you consider the fact that McAllen is pretty typical of most communities across the country in the sense that there is more demand than there is supply.

But when I say, "Put it in perspective," as you probably know the current law that we are looking at modifying as we reauthorize and extend the la