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In an appearance before a Senate subcommittee, Kennedy said the
administration would “emphasize healthy eating in Head Start,
and ensure the program continues to serve its 750,000 children
and parents effectively.”
The early education program, which serves children from
low-income and homeless families around the country, grapples
with staffing shortages and many centers operate in a perpetual
state of financial precarity.
While the program has been spared from elimination, Kennedy has
laid off a significant number of employees who helped the
program operate and shuttered half its regional offices.
Providers have experienced repeated funding delays since
President Donald Trump took office, forcing some to briefly
close.
In a tense exchange, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat,
pressed Kennedy on why the federal government delayed sending
funding to a Head Start operation outside Milwaukee, forcing it
to close.
“What would you say to a parent who shows up for ... Head Start
and the doors are closed?” she asked him.
“I would be very sad,” Kennedy said. “I fought very hard to make
sure Head Start gets all of its funding next year.”
Asked what was causing the delays, Kennedy said he did not know,
but suggested the problem came from employees “who wanted to
make the Trump administration look bad.”
Backers of Head Start had been fretting after a leaked Trump
administration proposal suggested defunding it, but earlier this
month a senior White House official told reporters there would
be no changes to the program.
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