Washington, USA - The House moved Thursday to shore up Head Start's academics and finances, but debate about updating the preschool program turned heated over the role religion can play in hiring.
Republicans were ready to amend the Head Start bill so churches and other faith-based Head Start centers could factor religion into their hiring. Democrats called that idea discriminatory.
Launched in the 1960s, the nearly $7 billion Head Start program provides comprehensive early education to more than 900,000 poor children. Though credited for getting kids ready for school, Head Start has drawn scrutiny as cases of financial waste and questions about academic quality have surfaced nationwide.
Overall, the House bill would insert more competition into Head Start grants, require greater disclosure of how money is spent, and try to improve collaboration among educators in different grades. Yet on Thursday, the dispute over religion overshadowed bipartisan support for the main parts of the bill.
GOP lawmakers, with backing from the White House, contend that preschool centers should not have to give up their religious autonomy in order to receive federal grants.
''This is about our children, and denying them exemplary services just because the organization happens to be a religious one is just cruel,'' said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.
The Republican plan would, for example, allow a Catholic church that provides Head Start services to employ only qualified child-care workers who are Catholics.
Democrats and Republicans offered different interpretations of whether the Constitution, federal law and court rulings protected -- or prevented -- federally aided centers from hiring based on religion.
''Congress should not be in the business of supporting state-sponsored discrimination,'' said Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla. Said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.: ''The (Republican) majority has decided to choose religious discrimination over what could have been a rare bipartisan agreement.''
Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican chairman of the House education committee, said former President Clinton signed four bills into law that allowed religiously based hiring. Boehner rejected appeals to withdraw the religion-based hiring amendment, which the House was taking up Thursday afternoon.
''What do we have to fear for allowing the House to work its will and letting the majority rule?'' he said. ''Let's have the debate. Let's have the vote. Unfortunately, my colleagues know that we're likely to win.''
House Republicans outnumber Democrats 231-202, with one Independent and one vacancy.
On academics, the bill would prod Head Start centers to work with school districts and teach to state academic standards or risk losing their federal money. That strategy of academic coordination helped win bipartisan support for the bill heading toward a House vote -- far different from the last try.
By a single vote in 2003, the House passed a bill that would have let up to eight states apply for control over Head Start, drawing opposition from every Democrat. That experimental shift in power died when Congress didn't pass a Head Start law that year, and the new bill does not include the provision.
The House bill, approved 48-0 by the chamber's education committee in May, would reauthorize the Head Start program through 2011. A similar version in the Senate is pending.