TAMPA, FL – U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL-14) helped cut the ribbon at Hillsborough County’s Church Park Head Start center on Monday and announced a $1 billion increase nationally for early childhood education, including Head Start in the bipartisan Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations package passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden last weekend.

“Head Start provides young children with a head start in life,” said Castor. “Head Start works, and Head Start students are more likely to be ready for kindergarten, graduate high school and attend college, and less likely to suffer from an adverse health outcome or repeat a grade in school.”

Castor continued, “It’s difficult to find and retain high-quality, trained early childhood educators due to the level of pay, but there is good news! At the end of last week, Congress passed bipartisan funding, and one of the largest increases was to early childhood education, so now our community can start paying teachers and early childhood educators the money they need and deserve. 

The Church Park Head Start officially opened in December and will serve 40 preschoolers and 16 infants and toddlers with modernized technology and educational tools. Photos from the event can be found here.

The bipartisan funding package includes $12.3 billion for Head Start and $8.7 billion for Child Care and Development Block Grants to increase access to quality child care for working families and invest in the early childhood education workforce. Read more about the new law here.