The Coalition Against Religious Discrimination

April 20, 2007

SUPPORT BIPARTISAN REAUTHORIZATION OF HEAD START BY OPPOSING ANY ATTEMPT TO REPEAL THIRTY-FIVE YEAR OLD CIVIL RIGHTS PROVISION

Dear Representative:

        We, the undersigned religious, civil rights, labor, education, health, and advocacy organizations urge you to support H.R. 1429, bipartisan legislation that would reauthorize the Head Start program, and to oppose any attempt to repeal longstanding critical civil rights protections. As reported out of the House Committee on Education and Labor on a 42-1 bipartisan vote, H.R. 1429 keeps in place a 35-year old civil rights provision that protects over 213,000 Head Start teachers and staff and over 1,360,000 parent volunteers from employment discrimination based on religion in federally-funded positions in Head Start programs.

        It is our understanding that H.R. 1429 will soon move to the House floor. At that time, we believe that it is likely that a Motion to Recommit will be advanced, which will contain instructions to repeal Head Start’s civil rights protection and allow government-funded religious discrimination in Head Start programs. If such a Motion to Recommit were to pass, reauthorization of the Head Start program will be placed into jeopardy. We urge you to oppose the expected Motion to Recommit.

        The critical nondiscrimination provision at issue has been included in the Head Start law since 1972 and is completely independent of other civil rights protections, such as those contained in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It is a fundamental civil rights protection. The enactment of the civil rights roll back in Head Start would mark the first-ever effort at repealing an existing, statutory nondiscrimination protection by Congress, putting an end to decades of Congressional action to expand civil rights, not restrict them. Strong bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate have supported Head Start with these same civil rights protections in every Head Start reauthorization since its inception -- in 1984, 1986, 1990, 1994, and 1998. No amendments were offered at those times to remove the civil rights provision.

        We recognize that religious organizations participating in the Head Start program make an invaluable contribution to the education of thousands of children. These religious organizations have complied with Head Start’s existing civil rights requirements effectively since the inception of this program. As a result, Head Start stands today as the second largest source of federal funding for faith-based providers.

        We also believe that allowing discrimination based on religion would significantly impede the important goals of Head Start, send a damaging message to Head Start children, and harm their education by separating children from their own teachers and parent volunteers. Teachers or parent volunteers working in any Head Start program run by a religious organization could potentially lose their jobs based only on their religion. Children in Head Start therefore could lose not only their teachers, but also the close programmatic and emotional connection with their own parents volunteering in the program.

        H.R. 1429 has the potential to gain broad support among religious, civil rights, labor, education, health, and advocacy organizations, but that broad support will end if a Motion to Recommit, containing the expected civil rights repeal, is passed on the House floor.

        Once again, we urge you to oppose the Motion to Recommit, and thereby support reauthorization of the Head Start program for the first time in nine years. By doing so, you will advance this critical program, in which the education of young children is so dependent on parent participation and on ongoing, close relationship with the most qualified Head Start teachers available.

Sincerely,

African American Ministers in Action
Alliance for Justice
American Association of University Women
American Civil Liberties Union
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American Federation of Teachers
American Humanist Association
American Jewish Committee
Americans for Religious Liberty
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Anti-Defamation League
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
Center for Inquiry
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Clergy Strategic Alliances
Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO
Disciples Justice Action Network (Disciples of Christ)
Episcopal Church
Equal Partners in Faith
Faith Action Network of People For the American Way
Human Rights Campaign
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense)
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)
Michigan Coalition for Human Rights
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP)
National Community Action Foundation
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
National Education Association
National Head Start Association
National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA
National Women’s Law Center
National Workforce Association
OMB Watch
People For the American Way
Pre-K Now
Protestants for the Common Good
Secular Coalition for America
Service Employees International Union
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF)
Stop Family Violence
Texas Faith Network
Texas Freedom Network
The Interfaith Alliance/ Foundation
Union for Reform Judaism
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
United Auto Workers (UAW)
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
Untied Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries
USA Works
Women of Reform Judaism
YWCA USA