The federal government, through the Child Care and Development Fund, Head Start and the welfare reform program (TANF), provides funding and sets guidelines for the care and education of millions of three and four year olds.

TEE will work with members of Congress and the Executive Branch to build a broad, bi-partisan consensus for federal policies that support and adequately fund high quality pre-K programs for these children. The staff of TEE will also work to build a broad-based coalition for universal high quality pre-kindergarten.

Our goal is to include key groups that “do business” in Washington, but who have yet to embrace the QPK agenda. These groups include the business community, the law enforcement community, and the civil rights community. Beginning this fall we have begun, in consultation with our state and federal partners, to develop a federal QPK agenda.



Letter from Amy Wilkins on Head Start and The Higher Education Act to the House of Represenatives Education and the Workforce Committee
H.R. 2210 requires that half of all Head Start’s lead teachers have bachelor’s degrees and specialized training in early education by 2008. In the last reauthorization of Head Start, Congress demanded that half of all Head Start teachers have associate’s degrees by September 2003; Head Start has met that challenge. Now, Congress must raise teacher quality to an even higher level.