Washington  - Recently, President Obama said, “Let there be no doubt: The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens. The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy and unacceptable for our children. And we cannot afford to let it continue.”

I agree with the president’s remarks and believe that the key to equalizing opportunities for all students and to lay the foundation for U.S. competitiveness in a global economy is investing in education as early in life as possible. Specifically, by providing funding to states to develop plans to raise the quality of early education programs and by ensuring students are provided with the nutritional information and choices they need to stay healthy, we can provide our nation’s students with the skills they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

I have long been a vocal advocate of early childhood and nutrition programs. For these reasons, I helped author the legislation recently signed into law to revise and build upon the strengths of the Head Start program. Additionally, I authored legislation to reauthorize the school lunch and child nutrition programs in 2003.

I am pleased with the work Congress has done to reform the successful Head Start program, a program that provides comprehensive early childhood services to low-income preschool children and their families. While these reforms serve as a major stepping stone for improving early education, much work in this area remains.

This week, the House Education and Labor Committee is scheduled to hold two hearings to focus on early education reform. I am hopeful this will lead to swift action on legislation aimed at further improving state early childhood education programs.

In particular, I am hopeful that Congress will consider the PRE-K Act, legislation to establish partnerships between states and the federal government to improve state-funded preschool programs serving children ages zero to five. I have joined with many of my colleagues as an original cosponsor of this legislation that would provide states with funds to improve student-teacher ratios in preschools, increase the amount of hours per day and weeks per year families have access to early education, and provide vital comprehensive services such as health screenings and nutritional assistance to preschool students.

This point leads to another serious problem that plagues our schools — improper nutrition. As the economy worsens, many families are having difficulty making ends meet. To compound this problem, costs of fruits and vegetables are often too expensive for a family’s already overextended budget. As a result, many school-aged students are not receiving well-balanced meals that could impact their learning. Research has shown that well-nourished students tend to be better students with higher academic performance and higher scores on standardized achievement tests.

This Congress, Child Nutrition legislation and Special Supplemental Nutrition Programs for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) are scheduled to be reauthorized. These programs work to improve student health by increasing student access to nutritious meals and snacks and reach more than 39 million children through various grant programs. Numerous studies have found that increased participation in the School Nutrition Program is associated with increases in academic test scores, daily attendance, and class participation. Additionally, both parents and teachers report that students participating in these breakfast programs are well-behaved in class and have additional energy to dedicate to studying. It is for these reasons that I intend to strongly advocate that these programs are revised and improved to help more families this Congress.

In the current state of the economy, there are a number of pressing issues facing Congress this year. Facing our education challenges should be included on Congress’s lengthy to-do list. In fact, commonsense reform does not always require a high price tag. I am hopeful that there is much bipartisan support for improving our education system to ensure that our children are receiving the highest-quality education possible.