Speech #1010059813

Mr. Speaker. the Migrant Education Program helps to equalize the opportunities for children of migratory agricultural workers. fishers and dairy workers. These families must move to work. They endure the typical problems related to poverty. including inadequate housing. poor health care. and unusual stresses that the average person in America will never know. The problems of migrant families are compounded by their mobility. Their children inherit these difficulties at an early age as they attempt to cope with the adjustments of moving from school to school. The HawkinsStafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Amendments of 1988 made several important changes to the Migrant Education Program. including the requirement that preschool children be sought out and served. Prior to this. individual programs could choose to extend their services to preschool children. but would do so without any Federal reimbursement. I would like to share with my colleagues an article which appeared in the State Education Leader which gives an excellent description of why the migrant program exists and why the Congress decided to lower the age range to include preschool children. (From the State Education Leader. Summer