Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 104 Part 6.djvu/897

 PROCLAMATION 6140—MAY 24, 1990 104 STAT. 5287 An essential element of every Head Start program is the sustained involvement of parents. Because they are their children's first and greatest teachers, parents play a very important role in planning and implementing Head Start programs—either through membership on Head Start Policy Councils or through participation in classroom activities. In fact, parents of present and former students constitute more than onethird of Head Start's paid staff. While government leadership is important, the caring and dedication of parents and volunteers are the key to Head Start's success. Today there are more volunteers than enrolled children in Head Start programs, and there are eight times more volunteers than paid staff members. Thus, Head Start not only serves as a shining example of the good that can be accomplished by concerned individuals working together at the community level, but also demonstrates that income and life circumstances are not barriers to serving others. Disadvantaged children will continue to benefit as more doctors and dentists, speech and language therapists, psychologists, and other professionals lend their services to Head Start. Because Head Start helps to ensure that children enter school eager and able to learn, strengthening and expanding this program is an important part of our national strategy to promote excellence in American education. Indeed, for fiscal year 1991, I have proposed a $500,000,000 increase in the budget for the Head Start program. These funds would allow us to serve up to 70 percent of eligible 4 year-olds before they start kindergarten. The Congress, by House Joint Resolution 490, has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of the 25th anniversary of Head Start. NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby urge all Americans to observe the 25th anniversary of Head Start with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities in recognition of all that this program has done and continues to do for low-income children and their families. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty- fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourteenth. GEORGE BUSH Editorial note: For the President's remarks of May 24, 1990, on the 25th anniversary of the Head Start program, see the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 26, p. 828). 39-194O-91-29:QL3Part6

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