Senator Edward Kennedy 1932-2009

Readers most likely already know that Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) passed away last night after a 13-month struggle with brain cancer. Kennedy was a tireless advocate for education and for poor and minority children in particular, championing numerous pieces of legislation to improve health, education, and other services for young children during his nine terms in the Senate and long tenure as chairman or ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and its predecessor. Kennedy’s death is a tremendous loss to the Senate, to advocates for young children, and to the nation. But his own words, in his 1980 address to the Democratic National Convention, tell us that, “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”