Head Start leaders, administrators fear effects of potential funding cuts

When news broke on April 11 that President Donald Trump’s administration was considering eliminating funding for Head Start, the free federal child care and preschool program for low-income families, Kara McFalls was on a call with other Head Start association leaders.

McFalls, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Head Start Association, said it was at least helpful for them all to be able to process that stunning news, which was first reported by USA Today, at the same time: “To get that and to at least be with your colleagues and able to unpack that in real time was better than not.”

But that didn’t make the news any less devastating. A few days later, the Washington Post published an internal White House budget document outlining the administration’s proposal to zero out funding for Head Start entirely that underscored the direness of the situation.

“So with that, I think it confirmed, in a way, what we had believed was in front of us,” McFalls said. “And what this is, is an effort to eliminate an entire program here, across the country, but one that impacts 30,000 kids, tens of thousands of families and 10,000 staff [in Pennsylvania].”

According to HeadStart.gov, more than 800,000 children nationwide are enrolled in the program, which serves low-income families with children under age 5, providing child care support that promotes “early learning and development, health, and family well-being.”

In many parts of rural Pennsylvania, Head Start isn’t just helpful — it’s essential, McFalls said, and losing it could devastate entire communities.

“In a lot of our rural areas, we have child care deserts, throughout Pennsylvania, but many other states, and so this is the program that families rely upon for their child care,” McFalls said. “It is the community center that they go to.”

It’s the same in Virginia, said Dawn Ault, the executive director of the Virginia Head Start Association.

“In rural areas where there’s not a lot of child care options and transportation is an issue, and all sorts of things — I mean, people won’t be able to work, because these children are birth to 5 years old,” Ault said. “You can’t just drop them off anywhere.”

Head Start served nearly 14,000 Virginia children in 2022, according to federal data.

With so many staff serving so many families who might otherwise not be able to afford child care, Head Start can be an economic linchpin in many places across the country.

“Head Start is one of the top 100 employers in the state of Wisconsin. It’s 15,000 kids and 4,000 staff,” explained Jen Bailey, executive director of Reach Dane, a Wisconsin Head Start provider that operates 14 centers in Dane and Green counties. “So if the program goes away, 4,000 staff lose their jobs, and then the 15,000 families that rely on us for child care so that they can go to work, largely in the service industry, like fast food, cleaning companies, CNAs, hospitality, they no longer are able to go to work.”

She said the administration’s cuts to Head Start are the wrong approach to reducing spending.

“I’m sure there are ways to cut back on federal spending, but it’s not by completely obliterating programs that are necessary to the functioning of our communities,” Bailey said. “We’re not bureaucrats. These are working-class folks. These are teachers, bus drivers, cooks, classroom aides, family services, social workers, you know, these are working-class people. They’re your neighbors that are going to lose their jobs.”

She noted that Reach Dane, at least, is already reeling from the effects of cuts to Head Start: mass layoffs of the federal workers in the Department of Health and Human Services who oversee Head Start.

“There’s literally no one to talk to,” Bailey said. “All we’ve been given is a generic email address that you could send requests for help. But when I look in the system that we use for correspondence and to submit our grants, the contact people listed are people that are no longer there. … So if someone’s running into an issue, has a grant submitted with a delay, there’s no one to talk with.”

Reach Dane received their most recent federal grant in January, so they have some time before they will really see negative effects of the layoffs, Bailey said. But there are still plenty of things to worry about — for one, the fact that any spending of over $10,000 on something that wasn’t a line item in their budget must receive prior approval from the federal government, even in an emergency.

“My example I’ve been using, here in Wisconsin, is if I have a furnace that goes down in the night, that’s an emergency, right? It’s still 40 degrees here, even though it’s the end of April, and I would not be able to replace that furnace without prior approval from regional office,” she said, “and again, right now, there’s no one to reach out to. So if I have a situation like that, I’m not sure what I would do, to be honest.”

Head Start programs operate on a mix of funding from federal, state, local and private grant sources; the precise mix varies from program to program.

“There’s really not a one-size-fits-all, because we have some programs that serve 2,000 children and families, and some that have 120, and it just depends on the local area,” Ault said.

Still, federal dollars are crucial.

“For Reach Dane alone, about 80% of our funding is federal grants — Head Start, Early Head Start and Early Head Start Child Care partnerships,” Bailey said. “So obviously, the vast majority of our staff and programs for kids will lose that funding. So it’s devastating. It’s absolutely devastating.”

“I get what they’re saying at times, that they’re looking into fraud, waste and abuse, right?” Ault said. “I heard one of the things, Oh, somebody’s 200 years old or 300 years old, still getting a Social Security check because that paperwork was never turned in or whatever. How can someone say that Head Start was fraud, waste and abuse when we’re trying to help children and families have a better life? I mean, this is crazy.”