Head Start changes assailed
Advocates say plans would lead to 'chaos'
By: Mary Ann Koruth
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... New rules changes and deregulation proposed by the Trump administration could destabilize Head Start, a federal program that helps New Jersey's most vulnerable infants and toddles reach kindergarten readiness, says local center operators.
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The most damaging proposals would require centers to reduce teacher-student ratios, shorten classroom time form six to three hours per day, reduce the number of days the centers are required to stay open, cap spending on salaries and administration at 5% instead of 15%, and require teachers to provide all instruction of English irrespective of students' native tongues, said Steve Barnett, co-director of the National Institute of Early Education Research at Rutgers university.
.... These changes would 'dilute" and cause "absolute chaos" to programs that have been a lifeline for the youngest low-income children, said Amanda Worth-Colon, executive director of the New Jersey Head Start Association, which represents centers across the state.
..... Currently, about 12,400 New Jersey children receive help through Head Start.
..... The public comment period to respond to the rules in October [2026] - but the government is not required to consider feedback when it finalizes its proposals.
..... State Education Commissioner Lily Laux signaled that she would ensure Head Start's existing standards align with New Jersey's irrespective of what the feds do.
..... "Making suer that early childhood care providers and our pre-K programs have consistent regulations hat get at quality for kids is something that we have to do, whether or not the feudal government moves on it," Laux told NorthJersey.com .
..... The state's 214 centers provide comprehensive health, nutrition, medical screening and academic services to the rural and urban poor, in a robust model that requires parents to participate, Worth-colon said.
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One example of the program's key role is a child who came to a center with most of his teeth rotted, said Bonnie Eggenburg, president of he New Jersey's Head Start Association.
..... "The child could only consume liquids because it was too painful for him to eat solid food," she said. Head Start covered his dental visits for oral surgery, including a health manager who drove the family to appointments.
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"If we hadn't intervened like that, he would, have started kindergarten unprepared to learn and treated as an outsider," she said.
..... The "flexibility" and :reduced burden" that the federal government says is driving the rule changes could create loopholes that release it from maintentaining current funding levels, said Worth-Colon. And New Jersey, with its stricter standards for pre-K, would end up carrying the taxpayer burden of paying for them, said Rutgers' Barnett.
..... Some proposed changes, such as requires at least 30 minutes of physical activity every three hours, and other long-needed sunsetting of rules would help the program, but the "major ones are completely inconsistent" with what Head Start was created for, Barnett said.
,,,,, More cause for alarm comes from the government wanting the program to default to state child care standards, Barnett said.
..... "The problem with that is twofold, because Head start is a school readiness program, not a child care program.
..... An earlier budget proposal to eliminate the program in 2025 did not win support in Congress.