Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 208 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to urge Congress to recognize the merits and successes of the Head Start Program and to reject any proposal to limit the program's scope or to move it from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Education.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Good Beginnings Alliance and the Hawaii Association for the Education of Young Children.

Your Committee finds that the Head Start program is more than just an early education program and that it covers many aspects of the welfare of young children. Your Committee further finds that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is better equipped to address the needs of these young children and that a transfer of these responsibilities to the Department of Education would be detrimental to the program's objectives.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 208 and recommends its adoption.