The Department of Health and Human Services is announcing a $7 million grant to the Mohawk Valley Community Action Agency for local Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

The announcement was made today by Congressman Richard Hanna.

"Expanded access to early learning guarantees a reduction in spending on entitlements, welfare and incarceration," Hanna said. "It also lowers obesity rates, helping to reduce healthcare costs. By focusing on early education we can begin to break the back of intergenerational poverty, producing more taxpayers and a more competitive America through a better-educated, growing middle class. We cannot guarantee every child equal success in life, but we can promise them the opportunity to be successful. I congratulate Mohawk Valley Community Action on this tremendous grant."

The Mohawk valley Community Action Agency has operated the the Head Start programs in Oneida and Herkimer Counties for nearly 40 years.

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