Council Member Gutiérrez speaks on Reso 650 opposing Head Start rule change

We will now move into discussion of resolutions, beginning with Councilmember Gutierrez, followed by Lewis.

Thank you, and I will be fast, because there's so much to celebrate.

One second, Councilmember.

Can we just please keep it down as the Councilmember speaks?

Let's give the gallery a second to quiet down.

Councilmember Gutierrez.

Thank you, Majority Leader.

Head Start is an invaluable program that, since its inception over five decades ago, has also served as a critical service to the thousands of multilingual learners throughout our city.

Reso 650, which opposes the federally proposed rule change that very blatantly puts families in harm's way by doing away with services and resources that support multilingual learners in Head Start programs.

These are children, and they deserve the same quality education as any other child.

We have data to support that supporting a young child's home language and in a school setting puts them on a faster path to English comprehension.

So I just want to thank our speaker.

I want to thank committee staff, Julia, Katie, Andrew.

Who helped put this Razo together.

I want to thank the advocates who came to the hearing to support multi-language learners, and I hope all my colleagues can join me in supporting and passing.

Reso 650 opposing the federal government's rule change to doing away with multilingual service support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Can we please keep it down in the chamber?

Councilmember Gutierrez, I apologize for the disruptions.