COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 22, 2005 

The Boustany Amendment: Head Start Students are Poised to Benefit Most

 Dear Colleague:

Wild and misleading rhetoric employed by opponents of the Boustany amendment protecting the rights of faith-based institutions are ignoring those who will benefit most from both the School Readiness Act and this amendment: our nation’s Head Start students.

 Head Start students ought to be served by the very best organizations willing to lend a helping hand on their behalf.  If those organizations are not faith-based, so be it.  But if they are faith-based, the faith and values that motivate them to serve their neighbors should not be held against them.  America’s Head Start students deserve better than this.

The Boustany amendment guarantees faith-based groups the federally protected right to maintain their religious nature and character through those they hire.  Why?  So faith-based groups may compete with other organizations to offer the very best services to participants in Head Start. 

By eliminating a pool of willing and professional social service organizations from the process of serving Head Start students just because they are faith-based, we are denying thousands of children the best possible services that would otherwise be available to them.

Join us in giving our nation’s Head Start children the opportunity to be served by any organization qualified and compassionate enough to do so.  Vote YES on the Boustany amendment.

Sincerely,