The Trump administration could soon implement new rules and regulations that would overhaul the nation’s Head Start program, according to the Associated Press.
Head Start is a federally funded program that provides early childhood education to kids from low-income families, from infants to 5-year-olds. Its regulations, which stretch more than 100 pages, outline requirements on everything from child-to-teacher ratios and child health screenings to family engagement.
The AP reports the Trump Administration will replace regulations with a dozen pages of rules, leaving specifics up to state and local officials.
But critics worry this is the first step in gutting the program.
“Head Start is critical; it's a critical program both here in Colorado, in Boulder County, and across the United States. Families depend on Head Start for quality care and have for decades. And so, I think that anything that would come in some form of sweeping regulation or deregulation of that program could ultimately change the way that a family and that community have come to expect this program to operate,” Kaycee Headrick, CEO for the Early Childhood Council in Boulder County, said.
According to the AP, Head Start, which operates in all 50 states, has long enjoyed robust bipartisan support. But some prominent conservatives in recent years have called for its elimination, saying the federal government should get out of the education business at every level. Deregulating the program would deliver a win for them and align with the Trump administration’s goals of scrapping rules it views as onerous or unnecessary.
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