Becky Carlson is a teacher at a Minnesota Head Start school for children ranging in age from 6 weeks to 5 years. Working with the most vulnerable kids in her community, Carlson, a member of Local 3628 (AFSCME Council 65), educates, feeds and nurtures them. Her school is a lifeline; she is essential to their well-being.
Yet looming cuts to the federal budget — all to give tax breaks to billionaires — will hurt Head Start programs like hers. And it will spell disaster for the children she works with.
*This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Tell us about the backgrounds of the kids you serve.
A lot of our kids come from foster homes or homes where drug abuse occurs. It’s a lot of children who have a lot of needs. We had one child who came in day after day and you could tell that she hadn’t been bathed. We give kids like her the only opportunity to get a bath. For other kids, the meals they eat here are the most substantive meals they get all day.
Our school is there to help people in our community who are struggling. My class is Early Head Start, so I have the 6-week-old babies to 3-year-olds.
What essential services do you provide for your community?
We do many things. We supply diapers, wipes, clothing and food to families. We have family advocates who help parents find housing.
My job focuses on developmental skills. We are an accredited school and have a curriculum we follow. We keep track of kids’ developmental levels — literacy, mathematics, social, cognitive — all those skills.
The school district also provides free occupational therapy and physical therapy to children here who need extra help.
What do you love most about your job?
Watching these kids learn and grow. Seeing their development and seeing the smiles on their faces. The time we spend with them often provides the most peaceful moments of their day. Sometimes we are the ones giving them the love and support they don’t get when they’re at home.
How does federal funding impact your job?
All our funding is federal grants. We are strictly funded through grants.
A lot of the kids are beneficiaries of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). This is one of the things that will allow them to be in our program — SNAP is one of the qualifiers for parents.
I’m very fearful of that if Congress cuts SNAP, some of these parents won’t have the means to feed their kids proper meals. If they cut that, what are they going to do? Kids can’t control if their parents have a job or not. They can’t get a job and feed themselves. They need help.
What would happen if your job is eliminated due to budget cuts?
I can go find another job. But for these parents, the only reason they are working is because they have this free care. We’re getting these parents back on their feet. They would be forced to quit their jobs, stay home and take care of these kids without any of the resources we have. It will be determinantal to our community.
As for the kids, we’re their support system. We’re helping them grow. We’re the ones helping them develop. I had a child who was almost 3 years old who never spoke a word. Within a couple months, she was talking with us.
We’re giving them a head start in school. When they get to grade school, the teachers come back to us and tell us how advanced our kids are because they have the basic skills they learned through our program are excited to get started in elementary school.
These budget cuts will affect our future. These children don’t have the means to learn and grow and become the people they should and need to be. I’m really fearful for the next generation if we lose funding.
Public service workers are organizing against these attacks.
Through our Get Organized campaign, AFSCME is fighting to stop anti-union extremists and their billionaire friends from destroying the public services we provide and rolling back laws that protect our health and safety at work, our job security and even our freedom to join our union.
It’s time for workers to Get Organized. Let’s GO.