Democrats and advocates are warning about the growing consequences that the government shutdown will have on Head Start programs across the country.
The program, which provides child care and nutritious meals to more than 700,000 children across the country, has already faced funding lapses that forced some programs to close completely and others to look for interim funding elsewhere. On Saturday, another wave of funding lapses is set to hit nearly 60,000 more children across 41 states, according to the National Head Start Association.
“It’s an absolute tragedy,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, said about the upcoming lapses. “And it is beyond comprehension that you have a Republican House, which is now in its fifth week of vacation. Maybe they want to come to work and help us resolve this crisis.”
Outside of Congress, pressure from nonprofit groups is starting to pick up as Head Start programs look for solutions elsewhere.
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“They are working with their states, working with their counties, working with their school districts, looking within their agencies, talking to philanthropic partners, just really trying to do everything that they can to avoid children and families being the collateral damage of the political fights in Washington,” said Tommy Sheridan, the deputy director of the National Head Start Association, a nonprofit that represents Head Start organizations and programs in Washington, D.C.
“They’re not gonna be able to hold that back forever,” Sheridan added.
States’ Head Start programs receive funding on different dates. Some already lost funding on Oct. 1 when their fiscal year ended, but the upcoming Saturday deadline will have an even bigger effect because the vast majority of states will lose their federal funding.
More than 100 organizations signed a letter released Tuesday, led by the First Five Years Fund, a nonprofit that supports child care and early education programs. In it, they asked Congress to end the shutdown.
“We cannot allow political gridlock to take away opportunities from our youngest learners and their families,” the letter reads.
But the pressure appears to have little effect on Republicans on Capitol Hill, even though lawmakers are aware that programs in their states could close. The Florida Head Start Association wrote in a press release that seven grantees won’t get a federal check on Saturday, bringing the total number of affected children in the state to almost 9,000.
“Isn’t it awful that the Democrats are doing this?” Sen. Ashley Moody told NOTUS, in line with Republicans’ messaging strategy of placing blame on Democrats for the shutdown as they withhold votes due to expiring health care subsidies.
In Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Voice reported that four Head Start programs, two of which are tribal programs, are set to lose funding on Saturday.
“Of the two non-tribal programs that have an end to their fiscal year on Oct. 31st, one will be able to serve children and families and pay staff through Nov. 21,” the director of the Oklahoma Head Start Collaboration Office said in an email to NOTUS. “The other program will have to cease services on Oct. 31st. If the shutdown continues into December there will be another 7 programs affected.”
Under the four programs that receive the grant funding are several centers, which serve nearly 2,500 children.
“You need to ask them (Democrats) what they’re concerned about, because there’s nothing else I can do,” Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin said when NOTUS asked him what role Head Start plays in negotiations.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which administers Head Start, said that child care should cost no more than 7% of a family’s income to be affordable. But according to the Economic Policy Institute, no state’s median family income meets that criteria, which makes programs like Head Start critical resources for families.
In a statement to NOTUS, HHS also tried to place the blame on Democrats.
“More than 58,000 children are on course to lose access to Head Start funding and programs on November 1 due solely to the Democrat-led government shutdown,” a spokesperson said in a statement to NOTUS.
Despite the fact that many programs for low-income families are barrelling toward losing federal funding, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and WIC, senators seem no closer to ending the shutdown stalemate.
Sen. Rick Scott’s home state of Florida would be one of the most affected by Head Start funding lapses. When asked what people in Florida are saying about losing programs that help low-income families, Scott said, “They’re fed up with the Democrats shutting down the government.”
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Correction: This story has been updated to correct the number of children served by Head Start.
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