By Alliance Intern Eleanor Hulan
Head Start has enjoyed broad bipartisan legislative support during both Republican and Democrat administrations since its founding in 1965. The program is the most comprehensive early education plan in the US, serving 40 million since its inception. It aims to help children keep up with their peers and thrive, especially those from disenfranchised backgrounds.
Head Start programs “are considered among the government’s most successful due to a wide array of societal benefits, including higher levels of education, higher incomes and better health among people who attended the program as children,” states the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Trump’s Attempt to Eliminate Head Start Funding
The program continued to be funded during Trump’s first term. However, in the run-up to the 2024 elections, Project 2025 laid out a plan for its complete dismantling. Trump denied he would implement it, but, like so many of its proposals, the government is now moving to implement this plan.
The initial effort to wipe out Head Start began in July 2025, when the administration withheld funds already designated for the program. There was strong pushback by both congressional Republicans and Democrats. The cuts were eventually found to be illegal, and the money was released. However, the administration was sadly successful in cutting close to 20% of staff.
And now, after a few more attempts to block funding, the Trump administration has instead pivoted to attacking program regulations around things like class size and background checks. Their claim now is that easing regulations will allow more children to be helped by the program, but it’s very difficult to believe that when the mandate given by the Heritage Foundation is to eliminate the program entirely.
Some of the most significant proposed changes include things like removing federal requirements that employees perform hearing and vision checks on kids and help with medical appointment scheduling. Another change is “eliminating teaching standards for math, literacy, and social and emotional development — such as self-regulating and responding to emotions.”
Faced with Congressional Opposition, Trump Devises a Dastardly Plan
Given bipartisan Congressional pushback against drastic budgetary cuts, the administration came up with an equally devastating but deceptive approach: simply weaken the regulations so that it will harm “Head Start’s ability to deliver its gold-standard services by mitigating poverty and improving long-term outcomes depends on comprehensive performance standards,” points out the Center for American Progress.
Though a weakening of standards may not seem as drastic or attention-getting as making a massive cut or ending the program entirely, removing the guidelines that have kept Head Start serving communities for more than half a century will still cause significant harm. These guidelines are essential to promoting the program’s consistent and well-documented positive impacts across communities nationwide.
“This proposal would weaken standards that families have relied on for generations and undermine a program Congress specifically acted to protect,” said Jennesa Calvo-Friedman, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. “By making Head Start programs less accessible, this proposed rule threatens women’s economic and social freedom and risks pushing them out of the workforce and back into the home.”
Trump seeks to gloss over all of this with his confounding claim that these changes will simply give states more control over their own programs. This simply doesn’t hold water, given that is already the way Head Start has operated for decades.
In fact, Lillian Hughes in The Atlantic explained Head Start did just that. “Rather than rolling out a one-size-fits-all program, the idea was to give grants to local agencies, like school districts, churches and other non-profits, which would develop their own programs based on local needs.”
Because the comment period on the Administration’s proposal has closed, the ACLU urges you to contact your US Senators and Representative to oppose the proposed changes that would harm Head Start. You can write your US Representative and Senators or call their office at (202) 224-3121. You can also get ongoing updates from the ACLU or Start Early.