AFSCME to Trump: Give up the reckless rule to deregulate Head Start
AFSCME members and other public service workers are fighting to save Head Start.
On Monday, they demanded that the Trump administration withdraw a proposed rule to deregulate the 61-year-old program.
Members of AFSCME and the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Service Employees International Union are in this fight together.
The unions warned that eliminating hundreds of regulations that set critical safety, quality, and other standards will hurt children and families and threaten the jobs of 40,000 Head Start workers.
The proposal will also increase the workload and stress by adding children to the classroom while removing critical support like coaching. And it fails to raise wages for family child care providers and other positions, and seeks to remove requirements for staff breaks.
“Head Start provides hundreds of thousands of low-income children with the education, nutrition and access to health care they need to succeed and live healthy, successful lives. Many AFSCME members have proudly dedicated their careers to providing these essential services. This Trump administration proposal to eliminate Head Start standards is a direct attack on their well-being that will negatively impact our communities,” said AFSCME President Patrick Moran.
“This is all part of a cruel plan to break the program so it can be eliminated entirely, an explicit goal of Project 2025. We must protect our kids’ futures by protecting Head Start. We urge the administration to abandon this reckless plan,” Moran added.
Head Start, a federally funded program, provides low-income children and families with free early childhood education, health, nutrition, and family support services. Since it was established in 1965, Head Start has served more than 40 million kids and their families. Just over 700,000 children and pregnant mothers were enrolled in the program as of fiscal year 2024, government statistics show.
