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  • Becky Pringle: Hungry Children Can’t Learn

    Becky Pringle: Hungry Children Can’t Learn


    Trump and his compliant allies in Congress took pride in the One Big Ugly Bill that they passed in early July. But it offers reasons for shame, not pride. The Trump bill finances tax cuts for the richest Americans by cutting food for schoolchildren and Medicaid for millions of children.

    The Republican budget bill locks in benefits for the rich and hunger for children of the poor.

    Imagine laughing, applauding, and feeling proud of this heartless bill! I

    President Trump Signs His "Big, Beautiful Bill" Into Law And Celebrates Independence Day At The White House

    President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill will cut federal spending on SNAP by around $186 billion over the next decade. Samuel Corum—Getty Images

    Becky Pringle, President of the NEA, writes in TIME magazine about the shamefulness of this legislation.

    She writes:

    Hunger in America’s public schools is a real problem, and it is heartbreaking. As the head of the largest union of educators in the country, I hear stories almost daily of how kids struggle and how schools and teachers step up to fill the gaps. It’s the school community in Kentucky filling a Blessing Box with foods to help fellow students and families who don’t have enough. It’s the teacher in Rhode Island who started a food “recycling” program to ensure no food goes to waste and to give students access to healthy snacks like cheese sticks, apples, yogurt, and milk.

    School meals are more than a budget line item. They are lifelines that help millions of students learn and grow. But as families across America prepare for the new school year, millions of children face the threat of returning to classrooms without access to school meals.

    President Donald Trump’s newly-signed tax bill, which Republicans overwhelmingly voted to pass, slashes food assistance benefits via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by an estimated $186 billion over the next decade—thelargest cut in American history. These devastating reductions will result in an estimated 18 million children losing access to free school meals.

    The cuts shift the cost of school lunches to the states, costing them more than they can afford when they are already grappling with tighter budgets and substantial Republican-led Medicaid cuts.Twenty-three governors warned these cuts will lead to millions of Americans losing vital food assistance.

    It’s hard to understand if you’ve never faced hunger, but millions of American children do not have access to enough food each day. In a recent survey of 1,000 teachers nationwide, three out of every four reported that their students are already coming to school hungry. 

    Our children can’t learn if they are hungry. As a middle-school science teacher for more than 30 years, I have seen the pain that hunger creates. It’s the student who skips breakfast so she can give it to her little brother. It’s the student who misbehaves because his stomach is rumbling. It’s the students who struggle in class after a weekend where they didn’t have a single full meal. Educators see this pain everyday, and that’s why they go above and beyond—buying classroom snacks with their own money—to support their students. 

    Free school meals represent commonsense and cost-effective public policy. They don’t just prevent hunger, they help kids succeed. Decades of research reviewed by the Food Research & Action Center shows that when students participate in school breakfast programs, behavior, academic performance, and academic achievement go up and tardiness goes down. When I stand in a room of bright and curious children, it breaks my heart that some of them are going without the food they need to learn and thrive—not because America can’t afford to feed them, but because adults in Washington decided they’d rather spend the money on tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.

    The cuts from the Republican tax bill will hit hardest in places where families are already struggling the most, especially in rural and Southern states where school nutrition programs are a lifeline to many. In Texas, 3.4 million kids, nearly two-thirds of students, are eligible for free and reduced lunch. In Mississippi, 439,000 kids, 99.7% of the student population, were eligible for free and reduced lunch during the 2022-2023 school year.

    These are not abstract numbers. These are real children who show up to school eager to learn but are instead distracted by hunger and uncertainty about when they will eat again. America’s kids deserve better. 

    The National School Lunch Act of 1946 laid the foundation that public schools are places where children can receive a free breakfast and lunch each day. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. For decades, Republican and Democratic administrations alike expanded school lunch programs, operating under the shared understanding that no child should go hungry at school in the richest country in the world.

    But the extreme right wing of today’s Republican Party has walked away from that moral consensus—ripping away these programs to give another tax break to billionaires.

    The Trump Administration’s authoritarian blueprint outlined in Project 2025 takes the anti-public education attacks even further by attempting to gut the Department of Education and to send tax dollars to private schools, and promoting ideologically-driven book bans and classroom censorship.

    And now, as the Trump Administration and its allies work to destroy public education, they also have attempted tointimidate the National Education Association and our 3 million educators. They know we are powerful and vocal advocates for students and a formidable opponent to their attacks on public education. Last month, the relentless efforts of organized educators and our allies got the Trump Administration to release $7 billion in education funds it had tried to withhold.

    Together, we will fight forward: for our vision where every student attends a safe, inclusive, supportive, and well-resourced public school, which includes nutritious meals for all students regardless of race or place. 

    We are educators. We don’t quit. We will continue to engage with school boards, town halls, state legislatures, and Congress to fight for students. Public education does not belong to politicians trying to dismantle it. It is for every student, parent, and educator who understands it has the power to transform lives.”



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  • John Thompson: Immigrant Children in Oklahoma Live in Fear

    John Thompson: Immigrant Children in Oklahoma Live in Fear


    John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, writes about the cloud of fear that has settled over the schools, as children of immigrant families fear harm to themselves and their families.

    Teachers in other districts have reported that the children of immigrant families are not showing up for school. They are afraid that the masked gunmen of ICE might suddenly appear and take them away. School is no longer a safe space.

    About John Thompson:

    After growing up in Oklahoma City, John Thompson earned a doctorate in American history at Rutgers University and became an award-winning author. He worked as a researcher for the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and as a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood. Thompson is a former award-winning teacher at the former John Marshall High School and Centennial Mid-High School. Now retired, Thompson lives in Oklahoma City.

    Thompson writes:

    Oklahoma schools find themselves in a challenging position, suddenly caught in the middle of the Trump administration’s push to deport illegal immigrants.

    Schools have found themselves at the forefront of immigration debates before, but this feels different.

    They face so many more challenges ranging from the threat of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids to decreasing attendance rates as families choose to keep their children home to avoid the trauma associated with them. The Trump administration has withheld funding for school programs, including migrant education and services for English language learners. And State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ policies, such as trying to require schools to collect data on the immigration status of students, are further destabilizing our education system.

    This isn’t the first time I’ve attended OK Justice Circle’s Breaking Bread panel and group discussions. This panel has met 14 times since 2020 in order to “increase community awareness of the lived experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in Oklahoma City area.”

    The latest Breaking Bread topic, which focused on the harm state and federal policies are causing to our state’s Hispanic community, was the most emotional one I’ve ever attended during the last five years.

    For instance, as a panelist was leaving for the conference, a student told her that she is studying the Holocaust and could see parallels forming between that horrific event that ultimately resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jewish people and the ramping up of our country’s immigration enforcement efforts.

    An elected school board member, who represents a majority Hispanic district, reported receiving death threats.

    Another urban district reported seeing an alarming surge in absenteeism.

    I heard stories about how students now come to school every day with their birth certificates in their backpacks just in case ICE raids their schools. I can’t remember the last time a child had to prove they were an American citizen while in school.

    These raise tough questions about what schools can do to protect the students they’re entrusted to serve.

    Schools cannot politicize the issues they deal with, but they can help provide “wrap-around services” like increased access to food and or solutions to housing insecurity. They can also address the physical and mental health issues their students are experiencing. And, they can refer students to nonprofit and public agencies that have support structures.

    But those solutions require trust in the law and the procedures that ICE agents are required to follow. It is really difficult to trust the immigration enforcement process right now.

    The Trump administration held funding for English language services. I worry that federal leaders could one day try to take it even a step further by denying access to public school to undocumented children.

    That would inflict incredible hardships on families and untold amounts damage on our state’s social and economic future.

    Fortunately, Rep. Arturo Alonzo-Sandoval, D-Oklahoma City, gave me some reason for hope. Over 20 anti-immigration bills were introduced to the Legislature this year, but only one became law.

    Only time will tell if the majority of Oklahomans can find the courage to push back on the policies that are causing immeasurable harm to our Hispanic neighbors.

    I often find myself wondering, what would it say about Oklahomans and our integrity if we did not stand up and reject today’s cruelty?



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  • Headstart Leaders Speak Out Against Kennedy’s Order to Ban Children of Non-Citizens

    Headstart Leaders Speak Out Against Kennedy’s Order to Ban Children of Non-Citizens


    The first iteration of Trump’s Big Ugly Bill included the elimination of Headstart. This program was birthed in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty.” It provides food, medical screening, education, and socialization skills for low-income children ages 3-4. It also provides jobs for some of the children’s mothers.

    But there must have been enough negative feedback from Republicans to cause Headstart to survive.

    However, the Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that children of undocumented immigrants would not be allowed to participate in Headstart. How will the programs know which children to exclude? The announcement outraged Headstart providers, those brave enough to speak out.

    The blog Wonkette reported on the negative reactions:

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. added further shame to his family’s legacy Thursday, announcing that effective immediately, undocumented immigrant children will be banned from the Head Start preschool program, which not only provides child care and preparation for kindergarten to low-income preschoolers, but also provides school meals and health screenings. The point is to finally crack down on undocumented three- to five-year-olds to send the message that they must not come to the US without proper legal authorization. 

    In addition to kicking an unknown number of children out of Head Start, the change in HHS policy also bars everyone in the country without legal status from multiple HHS programs including access to public clinics, family planning, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and the federal low-income energy assistance program. Sure, some people will probably get sick and die, but that’s the point. The Trump war on immigrants must ratchet up cruelty at every opportunity, just as the Nazis’ Nuremberg laws systematically excluded German Jews from every aspect of public life. 

    People living in the US without authorization are already prohibited from most public benefits like Medicaid and SNAP, but a 1998 rule enacted by the Clinton administration allowed them to use some public health programs, including Head Start, under the logic that a healthy public, including children attending preschool, is actually better than sickness and ignorance. Kennedy reversed that interpretation, redefining Head Start and a bunch of other HHS programs as “federal public benefits’’ that are only available to citizens and to permanent legal residents. You know, at least until Stephen Miller figures out how to invalidate all green cards, too. The MAGA faithful can never be satisfied in their demands for eradication of ILLEGALS.

    Kennedy said in a press release that even the most basic health and education measures “incentivize illegal immigration,” which of course is some bullshit, so we won’t quote any of his other lies. 

    Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association, issued a statement pointing out that in its 60 years of existence, Head Start “has never required documentation of immigration status as a condition for enrollment,” and that nothing in the Head Start Act justifies the new restrictions. Vinci added that “Attempts to impose such a requirement threaten to create fear and confusion among all families who are focused on raising healthy children, ready to succeed in school and life,” which of course is the point. She also noted that Kennedy’s action

    “undermines the fundamental commitment that the country has made to children and disregards decades of evidence that Head Start is essential to our collective future. Head Start programs strive to make every child feel welcome, safe, and supported, and reject the characterization of any child as ‘illegal.’”

    We will just assume that her comments were met with angry complaints from MAGA that it’s dishonest to call someone a “child” when in fact they’re an ILLEGAL ALIEN, which automatically wins every argument. 

    As for wisely using taxpayer money, HHS claimed that banning undocumented kids from Head Start would save $374 million a year, at the low, low cost of only $21 million annually to document eligibility. Not included in the estimate was any guess at how many US citizen children would be thrown out of Head Start because their parents fear submitting paperwork to the government, or how many kids of US citizens would lose access to the program because of paperwork snafus. 

    The number of children affected by the decision is difficult to assess, since according to experts, most of the young children of parents here without papers were born here in the US. Julie Sugarman, who directs K-12 research for the Migration Policy Institute, told the Washington Post, “The actual number of children this would affect is probably very, very small.” Of course, the ban is also so vaguely defined that the administration may intend for it to exclude any children of undocumented parents regardless of the child’s own citizenship status. 

    We’ll add that ripping away education and health services from any children at all as a means of punishing their parents is cruel on the face of it. And of course Donald Trump is still itching to end birthright citizenship so babies can be deported more easily. 

    For that matter, the Right has long despised Head Start and sought to wipe it out altogether because preschool is communist, and allows poor families to have some childcare they don’t deserve. It’s a bit of a wonder that the administration’s draft budget plan to zero out Head Start, leaked in April, didn’t ultimately make it into the Big Shitty F**k Poor People Twenty Ways From Sunday Bill. But then, there’s little reason to think Trump won’t decide at some point to simply eliminate Head Start by decree, since he considers funding passed by Congress only a suggestion anyway.

    In the longer term, red states and groups like the Heritage Foundation keep pushing their efforts to pass laws to ban undocumented children from public schools altogether. The 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe ruled that states can’t deny access to public education based on immigration status, but that’s yet another thing that gets rightwingers spittin’ mad. Bills that would have required schools to collect information on families’ immigration status failed this year in Indiana, New Jersey, Texas, and Tennessee, but eventually one is nearly certain to pass and make its way to the Supreme Court.

    Pushback to the latest assault on Head Start and undocumented children came very quickly. The Illinois Head Start Association on Friday instructed its hundreds of members not to make any changes to who they serve, pointing out that the government hasn’t provided any directions on how providers are supposed to put the ban in place and screen out undocumented children. (Or parents? Nobody knows!) 

    “We have never asked for [the] status of our children that we’re serving, and to do so creates fear and anxiety among our community,” said Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, head of the Illinois Head Start Association, which supports about 600 centers statewide serving the 28,000 students in Head Start in the state. “So we’re really worried that families will stop bringing their children, they won’t be able to go to work [and] children will be in unsafe places.”

    The Illinois Head Start Association is also one of several educational organizations and parent groups who filed a federal lawsuit in April aimed at stopping Trump’s threatened cuts to Head Start. The ACLU, which is representing the plaintiffs, immediately announced that the plaintiffs will amend their complaint in the case to fight the administration’s latest attack on Head Start.

    Now that Trump’s polling on immigration policy is deep underwater with Americans, who support deporting dangerous criminals but are horrified by Trump’s fascist stormtrooper shit, this new cruelty aimed at little kids is only going to make people more disgusted with the administration. Americans freaking love education. We hate seeing kids harmed. Let Republicans know you aren’t going to stand for this crap.



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  • Migrant education helps farmworkers’ children catch up; Trump wants to end it

    Migrant education helps farmworkers’ children catch up; Trump wants to end it


    High school students in Monterey County’s Migrant Education Student Academy learn bioengineering from Stanford University students.

    Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource

    Top Takeaways
    • In Monterey County, students brush up on English, math and science to fill gaps caused by moving schools.
    • California is suing the Trump administration for withholding funds from the nearly 60-year-old program.
    • Many current and former students call the program life-changing.

    A group of high school students in Monterey County is spending their summer extracting DNA from sprigs of clover, making jewelry out of algae and shaping ceramic bowls, while also beefing up their math, reading and writing skills.

    This Migrant Education Student Academy is one of dozens of federally funded migrant education programs in California that help the children of agricultural workers fill gaps in academic instruction as they move with their parents from job to job.

    Fourteen-year-old Omar Flores said the program offers classes that he has never had access to, like ceramics and BioJam, a bioengineering class taught by Stanford University students.

    “I like how we get to build with clay, and we get to express our feelings with clay. I like BioJam too because we further our knowledge and look in microscopes. I’ve learned a lot about genes and how we can modify genes,” Flores said.

    Educators say Migrant Education Programs help boost students’ academic skills and put them on track for college and careers, which is backed up by some research studies.

    But this program and others like it throughout the state may soon disappear. Migrant education is one of five programs for which President Donald Trump withheld federal funds that are usually distributed to states on July 1. California is now suing the Trump administration over the frozen funds, which total about $121 million for migrant education in the state, according to an estimate by the Learning Policy Institute. 

    The president has proposed eliminating the program in the next fiscal year’s budget, which is yet to be voted on in Congress. In his budget proposal, he implied that it was not in the nation’s interest to prepare migrant education students for college. “These programs have not been proven effective, are extremely costly, and encourage ineligible non-citizens to access U.S. IHEs [institutions of higher education], stripping resources from American students.”

    Yet many migrant education students are U.S. citizens. The Migrant Education Program, established almost 60 years ago, serves students whose parents work in agriculture, fishing, dairy or logging, and have moved in the last three years for work, regardless of their immigration status.

    Loss of funds would be ‘devastating’

    In California, 47,225 students were enrolled in Migrant Education Programs statewide in 2024-25. Monterey County’s program is one of the largest, with 4,328 students in 2024-25, for which it received about $14 million in federal funds. In addition to academic instruction and counseling, many counties also offer health services. San Diego County, for example, brings a mobile dental clinic from USC each year to provide dental cleanings, fillings and other treatment to migrant students.

    Monterey County and many others are keeping their programs through the end of the summer, but after that, their future is uncertain. The elimination of the funds would be devastating, said Constantino Silva, senior director of migrant education in Monterey County.

    “The support system for the migratory students will not be there,” Silva said. “Hopefully, there’s enough caring people who will still keep these students on their radar, right? But I’m afraid the students will fall through the cracks. I’m worried that only a few will continue to thrive as opposed to many.” 

    Silva credits the Migrant Education Program with preparing him for college. He was a migrant student himself, after he moved with his family from Mexico to Monterey County when he was 6 so they could be with his father, who moved back and forth for work. 

    “It made a huge difference for me. By the time I got to high school, I was taking college prep courses, right? I could speak and write in English on a very high level. And my math was great too. So I was propelled into college prep, and then I went to college, and I really credit that to the additional support that I received through the migrant program,” Silva said.

    ‘I learned a little bit more words here’

    Silva’s first school in the U.S. was Santa Lucia Elementary in King City, where on a recent Wednesday, first and second grade migrant education students were learning the sound O makes when it’s before an A. In unison, they read sentences aloud: “They load the boat,” “Goats like to roam,” and ‘The soap will float.”

    In another classroom, third and fourth graders practiced the moves for a dance they learned from a visiting teacher from Mexico. Piñatas the students made by hand hung from the ceiling.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JapJFXJZERE

    Fifth graders discussed a book they were reading, “Radio Man,” about a child in a migrant farm-working family. Teacher Keyla Robles asked them to talk with their classmates about what happened at the beginning of the book, and then what happened in the middle.

    Daleysa, 10, said she was excited to read a book about migrant workers like her own family, who travel each year from Yuma, Arizona, to King City. Both of her parents work in the fields, she said.

    “I like it a lot because it’s about a boy who moves to different places to get different fruits and vegetables. And it’s kind of like how we do it, but we only go to two different places,” Daleysa said. 

    Oliver, 10, whose parents work in the lettuce fields, said he learned multiplication and more English during the summer program.

    “I learned a little bit more words here,” he said, adding that it has also helped his friends who do not speak fluent English. “It helps them a little bit more than the normal school, because the normal school doesn’t really tell you to repeat those words.”

    Their teacher, Robles, is passionate about teaching the children of migratory farmworkers because she was one herself. As a child, her dad worked in Arizona for six months out of the year and in Monterey County the other half. Her family’s constant moves made it hard for her to do well in school or learn English, she said.

    “I experienced that big gap,” she said. “It took me years to pass the ELPAC, for example, because I wasn’t having that support that I know that Migrant Ed gives our students.” The ELPAC is the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California, a test that all students who speak a language other than English must take until they are considered proficient in English.

    Keyla Robles is passionate about teaching migratory students.
    Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource

    Now, Robles is trying to help fill the gaps she sees in her own migrant education students. “It’s basic phonics, phonemic awareness that as they’re progressing from grade level to grade level, they just go over their head. They never actually get that understanding of basic letter sounds, basic addition, subtraction,” she said.

    Robles applied for a job as a full-time migrant resource teacher with the Monterey County Office of Education, but the job was put on hold after federal funding was frozen.

    “It’s really disappointing for me,” Robles said. “Because I feel like I have such a big impact on the students.”

    Setting students up for success

    A few blocks away at Chalone Peaks Middle School, students gushed about how much they learned in the summer migrant education program’s STEM class, putting together hand-cranked light bulbs and building palm-sized radios. 

    “The Migrant Education Program is different from regular school because it teaches you a lot more,” said 12-year-old Evelyn, who travels back and forth between Yuma, Arizona, and King City every year. “In school, you mostly review stuff. Here in the STEM class, they teach you real science, and you actually do stuff for yourself.”

    Clicking through different stations from banda music to talk shows on her new radio, Evelyn said she will “definitely” use it.

    High school migrant education students from Monterey County spent a few days at the University of California, Santa Cruz, this summer. Others attended a summer program at California State University, Fresno. Migrant Education Program coordinator Karla Caliz said the program makes it more likely for these students to attend college.

    “Many of our students will narrate how it’s life-changing for them,” she said. “We do believe that without programs like these, we would have students who would not be able to access the information or the process to enter [college].”

    Jose Perez, the migrant resource teacher for the King City Union School District, said the summer Migrant Education Program helps set students up to succeed during the school year.

    “Sometimes we have students who haven’t had any formal education, so they don’t know about social expectations, and this is a good way to teach them norms in the United States, because in the regular setting, during the regular year, these students may be seen as troublemakers or just being defiant, and they just need to learn our system,” Perez said.

    It hurts, Perez said, to know the program could end.

    “In my experience in this community, even the district itself, they rely on me a lot,” he said. “I don’t see these students having the chances without the migrant education support.”





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  • Trump and Newsom are stealing from our children to avoid hard choices

    Trump and Newsom are stealing from our children to avoid hard choices


    From left, President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    Credit: Official White House photo / Molly Riley and AP Photo / Rich Pedroncelli

    For all of their differences, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. President Donald Trump have one thing in common: both are stealing from the future to pay for their budgets.

    Trump’s thefts take the form of budget deficits that are financed by issuing U.S. Treasury securities that must be paid back by future budgets, plus interest, with money that future governments won’t be able to use for their own services. His latest budget is expected to add $4 trillion to the national debt.

    Newsom’s thefts take the form of drawing from budget reserves that are supposed to be used to provide services during recessions and borrowings from Special Funds that are supposed to provide special services. Newsom has taken so much from budget reserves that his own Department of Finance forecasts the next governor will face his or her first budget without reserves. He also skips or shorts deposits to retirement funds that set aside money for future retirement payments to employees.

    How did Trump and Newsom end up with deficits during an economic expansion? The short answer is that Trump cut taxes while Newsom increased spending. Deficits are expected to continue in both Washington, D.C., and Sacramento. To make matters worse, by issuing budget debt during economic expansions, Trump and Newsom set up future governments for a double whammy during recessions when those governments will have to cover Newsom’s and Trump’s thefts, even as their own tax revenues fall.

    Another thing Trump and Newsom have in common is throwing people off of Medicaid rolls while throwing money at favored classes. Trump’s latest budget subjects adults to work requirements, reduces funding and adds administrative hurdles, while Newsom’s latest budget imposes asset limits, freezes enrollment of new undocumented adults, and levies new fees on enrollees. Trump’s favored classes are corporations, higher-income taxpayers, tip-based workers and Social Security recipients who got tax cuts, while Newsom’s favored classes are government unions that got more jobs and higher salaries, and entertainment companies that got more corporate welfare.

    Trump and Newsom aren’t the only ones budgeting with thefts from the future. In his most recent budget, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho skipped an annual contribution to a fund set up to cover health care costs for retired employees. You would think he would know better since a principal reason for the deficit he is struggling with is past skips and shorts that have led LAUSD’s annual spending on retirement debt to nearly triple over the last 10 years to nearly $2 billion per year.

    Each has their own reasons for their actions — Trump asserts that tax cuts will eventually produce more tax revenues, while Newsom and Carvalho assert that deficit spending is needed now — but all are adding to past thefts that are already robbing citizens of huge levels of resources. The federal government is already spending more every year on interest than the $833 billion it spends on defense; California is already spending as much on bonded and retirement debt than on the $23 billion it sends to the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems combined; and LAUSD is already spending nearly 20% of its revenues on retirement costs.

    By their actions, Trump, Newsom and Carvalho have just added to those burdens. Our country desperately needs leaders who care about the future.

    •••

    David Crane is a lecturer in public policy at Stanford University and president of Govern for California, a political philanthropy that works to counter special interest influence over California governments.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • California struggles to support personal, educational needs of children, report card finds 

    California struggles to support personal, educational needs of children, report card finds 


    Despite statewide efforts, California is still struggling to support the personal and educational needs of its students, according to the 2024 California Children’s Report Card conducted by the organization Children Now, which “grades the State on its ability to support better outcomes for kids” and evaluates progress made on California policies and investments. 

    “California has failed to significantly improve outcomes for kids, allowing unacceptable and economic disparities to stagnate and in many cases grow,” Ted Lempert, Children Now’s president, wrote in a letter included in the report.

    “What’s particularly disturbing is that California continues to trail far behind other states on a number of important indicators of child well-being. Despite our relatively high tax burden, our progressive leanings, and our enviable 5th largest economy in the world, California is far from a leader when it comes to kids. That’s not only a threat to our state’s collective future, but to the entire country as well since California is so often a bellwether for the nation.”  

    Children’s health

    Among the health categories assessed, “health insurance” received the highest grade, A-minus. Meanwhile, “birthing health,” “preventative screenings,” “supporting mental health,” “preventing substance abuse” and “health care access and accountability, all received grades in the D range. 

    The rest of the health categories — including “environmental health and justice,” “oral health care” and “relationships and sexual health” — all received grades in the C range.

    Additionally, the report noted that “while many states and municipalities across the country have declared racism as a public health crisis, California has yet to do so.”

    According to the report, “children’s poor health outcomes are largely driven by racism at the intersection of poverty, sexual orientation, gender, and geography.” 

    Children’s education 

    Of the 12 topics under education, none earned a grade in the A range. Here’s how the report assessed the state on its education:

    • C-minus for child care.
    • B-plus for preschool and transitional kindergarten. 
    • B-minus for early care and education workforce.
    • D for early intervention and special education. 
    • C-minus for education for dual language and English learners.
    • C-plus for funding. 
    • B for expanded learning programs
    • D for science, technology, engineering and math education. 
    • C for educator pipeline, retention and diversity. 
    • D for school climate: connections with adults on campus. 
    • C for “school climate: discipline and attendance.
    • B-minus for higher education. 

    “California is investing record amounts in public education, yet struggles to effectively support students, especially those who need the most help,” the report reads. 

    It added that the state’s education system “ranks 43rd of 50 states of outcome gaps by race and ethnicity.” 

    Support from family 

    In terms of family support, “voluntary evidence-based home visiting” earned a C-minus, while in “paid family leave,” the state received a B-minus. “Income assistance for low-income families” was given a B. 

    “Children’s well-being is fueled by good health, enriching learning opportunities, and positive and nurturing relationships with adults. Both adult and child well-being can be undermined by unmet basic needs, economic hardship, social isolation, and stress,” according to the report. 

    “Throughout the pandemic, California made positive policy changes to bolster families with key supports, even as federal funding withered away,” the report read. “However, too often, families with young children are an afterthought in California policy.”

    Child welfare in California

    None of the child welfare categories garnered an A or B. 

    Instead, the state earned a C for “home stability and enduring relationships” and a C-plus in “health care for kids in foster care.” 

    Meanwhile, the state earned a D in both education supports for students in foster care and transitions to adulthood.

    “For children and youth who cannot remain safely at home and must enter foster care, the State must ensure access to stable and nurturing foster homes, trauma-informed services, and targeted, high-quality educational supports to help them heal and thrive,” the report states. 

    Cross-sector issues facing California children 

    In terms of “cross-sector” issues, both “food security” and “cradle-to-career data systems” received a B-minus, while support for LGBTQ+ youth received a C-plus, “decriminalization of youth” received a D-plus and support for unaccompanied homeless youth landed a D-minus. 

    “While all of the issues in the “Report Card” are interrelated, the topics in this section have especially strong implications across multiple sectors and systems,” the report read.

    “A whole-child approach to supporting kids incorporates services that meet young people where they’re at and address the many factors that are needed to help them thrive.” 



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  • Can arts education help children heal from trauma?

    Can arts education help children heal from trauma?


    A print-making class at Pine Ridge Elementary.

    Credit: Butte County Office of Education

    The catastrophic Camp Fire roared through Northern California’s Butte County in 2018, charring the landscape, taking 86 lives and destroying countless homes and habitats in the town of Paradise.

    The deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history at the time, the fire spread at the rate of 80 football fields a minute at its peak, scorching the hearts and minds of the people who live there, especially the children.

    That’s why the Butte County Office of Education sent trauma-informed arts educators into the schools, to help students cope with their fear, grief and loss. Buildings can be repaired far more quickly than the volatile emotions of children scarred by tragedy. Long after the flames died down, the heightened sense of fragility that often follows trauma lingered.

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    “The people displaced from Paradise were suffering from acute trauma, running for their lives, losing their houses and being displaced,” said Jennifer Spangler, arts education coordinator at Butte County Office of Education. “This county has been at the nexus of a lot of impactful traumas, so it makes sense that we would want to create something that directly addresses it.

    Even now, years after the conflagration, many residents are still healing from the aftermath. For example, the county has weathered huge demographic shifts, including spikes in homelessness, in the wake of the fire, which have unsettled the community. All of that came on the heels of the 2017 Oroville dam evacuations and longstanding issues of poverty, drug addiction and unemployment, compounding the sense of trauma.

    “Butte County already had the highest adverse childhood experiences (ACES) scores in the state,” said Spangler. “We’re economically depressed, with high numbers of foster kids and unstable family lives and drugs. I think the fire was just another layer, and then Covid was another layer on top of that.”

    Chris Murphy is a teaching artist who has worked with children in Paradise public schools as well as those at the Juvenile Hall School. He believes that theater can be a kind of restorative practice, helping students heal from their wounds in a safe space.

    “Arts education is so effective in working with students impacted by trauma because the creative process operates on an instinctual level,” said Murphy, an actor best known for voicing the role of Murray in the “Sly Cooper” video game franchise for Sony’s PlayStation. “All arts are basically a way to tell a story and, as human beings, we are hard-wired to engage in storytelling as both participant and observer. A bond of mutual respect and trust develops among the group as they observe each other’s performances and make each other laugh. Over time, the environment takes on a more relaxed and safe quality.”

    A drumming class at Palermo Middle School.
    Credit: Butte County Office of Education

    Another teaching artist, Kathy Naas, specializes in teaching drumming as part of a social-emotional learning curriculum that helps students find redemption in the visceral call-and-response rhythms of the drum circle.

    “Trauma is powerful and is connected to something that occurred in the past,” said Naas, a drummer who is currently performing with a samba group as well as a Congolese group based in Chico. “Drumming occurs in the present moment and engages the brain so much that fear,  pain and sadness cannot break through.”

    To be sure, the use of trauma-informed arts ed techniques goes beyond natural disasters. Many arts advocates believe that these techniques can help children cope with myriad stressors.

    “Now more than ever, these cycles of traumatic events, they just keep coming,” said Spangler, who modeled the Butte program after a similar one in Sonoma County in the wake of the devastating 2017 Tubbs Fire.

    Children who have experienced trauma may experience negative effects in many aspects of their lives, experts warn. They may struggle socially in school, get lower grades, and be suspended or expelled. They may even become involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice system.

    “An individual who has been impacted by trauma, especially ongoing toxic stressors like a home environment with addiction, neglect or abuse, develops a brain chemistry that is detrimental to cognitive function … essentially locking the brain in a fight-flight-freeze cycle,” Murphy said. “With this understanding of what the trauma-affected student is going through, I use theater arts to disrupt the cycle.”

    It should also be noted that delayed reactions are par for the course when dealing with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), experts say. Some children will show their distress readily, while others may try to hide their struggle.

    Coming out of the pandemic, the healing power of the arts has been cast into wide relief as public health officials seek tools to grapple with the youth mental health crisis.

    “Music can, in a matter of seconds, make me feel better,” said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy during an arts summit organized by the White House Domestic Policy Council and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). “I’ve prescribed a lot of medicines as a doctor over the years. There are few I’ve seen that have that kind of extraordinary, instantaneous effect.”

    A trauma-informed arts ed class involving theater in Butte County.
    Credit: Butte County Office of Education

    Drumming can help build empathy, Naas says, because it allows for self-expression but also encourages a sense of ensemble, listening to others and taking turns.

    “Drumming is a powerful activity that creates community,” said Naas. “What I notice about drumming with children is that students become excited, motivated, and fully engaged at the very start. They reach for the rhythms and begin exploring the drums right away.”

    Arts and music can nurture a visceral feeling of belonging that can help combat the isolation that often follows a tragic event, experts say. This may also provide some relief for those grappling with the aftershocks of the pandemic.

    “The truth is we are all dealing with hardships associated with the pandemic and with learning loss, and we know that the arts, social-emotional learning and engagement can create a healing environment,” said Peggy Burt, a statewide arts education consultant based in Los Angeles. “Children need to heal to develop community, develop a sense of belonging and a sense of readiness so that they can learn.”

    The families of Butte county know that in their bones. Trauma can fester long after the emergency has passed, after the headlines and the hoopla. Turning tragedy into art may be one way to heal.

    “I’ve seen it over and over in these classrooms, the kids quiet down, they’re calm, they’re focused,” said Spangler. “You can see the profound impact the arts have on the kids every day.”





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  • Newsom prioritizes electric school buses over preschool for children with disabilities

    Newsom prioritizes electric school buses over preschool for children with disabilities


    Marysville Joint Unified School District runs preschool for children with and without disabilities.

    Courtesy of Marysville Joint Unified School District

    Gov. Gavin Newsom invested millions into expanding preschool for children with disabilities. Now, he’s proposing to scale it back, to invest more in electric school buses.

    The move is causing an uproar among leaders of county offices of education and school districts, and advocates for early education and special education.

    “While I appreciate the governor’s dedication to climate change, as a special education administrator and somebody who’s been in the special education field, I think students with disabilities are more important than electric buses,” said Anthony Rebelo, director of the Trinity County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) and chair of the Coalition for Adequate Funding for Special Education.

    Two programs that aim to expand access to preschool for children with disabilities are proposed to be slashed in Newsom’s May revision of his budget proposal.

    The first is an increase in the number of slots in state-subsidized preschool programs that are set aside for children with disabilities. Beginning in 2022, the state began to require these preschool programs to set aside at least 5% of their space to enroll children with disabilities. The percentage of space set aside was to increase to 7.5% in 2025-26, and to 10% in 2026-27. Facing a massive budget shortfall, Newsom is now proposing to cancel that increase and leave the number of slots for children with disabilities at 5%. This move would save the state $47.9 million in 2025-26 and $97.9 million ongoing, beginning in 2026–27.

    The second program the governor plans to cut is the Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program, a program that was set to fund $250 million in grants to help school districts and county offices of education adapt facilities and playground equipment and train preschool teachers to meet the needs of children with disabilities. The state funded a first round of grants in 2020. School districts and county offices of education had applied in April for a second round of grants. The California Department of Education sent out award letters this week to some applicants specifying how much funding they can expect to receive.

    During a May 16 hearing before the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Education, Alex Shoap, finance budget analyst from the California Department of Finance, made it clear Newsom is proposing “pulling back $250 million in currently unallocated Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program funding to instead support the electric school bus grant investment.”

    H.D. Palmer, deputy director for external affairs for the Department of Finance, said the state Legislature had committed to putting $500 million toward electric school buses in 2024-25 and another $500 million in 2025-26. Newsom now aims to spend $395 million more on the buses in 2024-25, most of which would come from the Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program.

    Palmer said spending more now on electric school buses would reduce the amount the state would have to pay in 2025-26 to $105 million.

    In response to criticism of cuts to preschool for children with disabilities, Palmer pointed to the following comment from Newsom on May 10 when he announced his new budget proposals.

    “You will ask me, I’m sure, in the Q and A, ‘Why this cut?’ I will undoubtedly say, ‘I prefer not to make this cut.’ These are programs, these are propositions that I’ve long advanced, many of them. These are things that I’ve supported. These are things we worked closely with the Legislature to advance. None of this is the kind of work you enjoy doing, but you’ve got to do it,” Newsom said.

    School district and county leaders, as well as other preschool providers across the state expressed dismay that these programs would be cut at a time when preschool programs were just beginning to include more children with disabilities in their classrooms.

    “It really is a breach of promise,” said Dave Gordon, Sacramento County superintendent of schools. “People have been planning for these services to go forward for several years. They’re ready to go. I have several people on my staff who are broken-hearted that this is not going to go forward, because they feel it’s been long delayed.”

    Preschoolers with and without disabilities learn and play together in Marysville Joint Unified School District.
    Courtesy of Marysville Joint Unified School District

    Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, children as young as 3 years old with disabilities must be provided special education. The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have stated that children with disabilities should have access to preschool and child care programs where they can participate alongside their peers without disabilities. California also made expanding access to inclusive preschool programs a goal in its Master Plan for Early Learning and Care, released in 2020.

    “We’re woefully behind most states,” said Elizabeth Engelken, chair of the association SELPA Administrators of California. “We were relying on this … support to begin to shift the environment in schools to be more developmentally appropriate.”

    Jolie Critchfield, director of child development for Marysville Joint Unified School District in Yuba County, said her district used funding from the Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program to train staff and completely revamp their preschool programs with new materials and playground equipment, like swings built for children with disabilities. The district also moved all “special day classrooms” alongside general preschool classrooms, so that children with disabilities are able to interact with other children on the playground and spend time in class with them as well.

    She said the district planned to use future funding to increase coaching for teachers and to include more children with disabilities in general education preschool classrooms.

    “It literally brings tears to your eyes, seeing the kids in the program with wheelchairs and scooters. Kids that you just would not think could be OK in a general education setting, because it would be too overwhelming, are going in there and doing so well,” Critchfield said. “I can’t believe we ever did it any differently.”

    One mother, Stella Goodnough, said she is grateful her daughter was able to attend preschool in Marysville alongside children with disabilities. 

    “I was always afraid to approach special-needs children because I didn’t know what to say or do. Now I see my daughter make friends, especially a best friend, with a special-needs child,” said Goodnough. “She often talks about him at home, which creates opportunities to talk about how wonderful we all are with our differences.”

    The Kings County Early Learning Center playground includes a swing for children in wheelchairs and other equipment for children with disabilities.
    Courtesy of Kings County Office of Education

    The Kings County Office of Education in the Central San Joaquin Valley used funding from the first round of grants to transform an old school building into an early learning center, with many services available for children with disabilities. The center, in Hanford, currently has one classroom where children with and without disabilities are taught together. The county office applied for another grant this year to open two more inclusion classrooms. 

    “Without this funding, our goals are once again relegated to a far-off future when we can’t ever guarantee when that might happen,” said Todd Barlow, Kings County superintendent of schools.

    Several special education administrators said cutting the program would end up costing the state more in the future, because children who have had early education and services at a young age may not need as much intervention in later years.

    “If we identify a student much earlier, get them in that school routine of what it’s like to have group instruction, they’re going to be much more prepared by the time they’re in kindergarten or TK,” Rebelo said. “This just feels like a huge step backwards.”

    The budget proposal would cut about 200 children with disabilities from attending preschool at Kidango, a nonprofit organization that runs dozens of child care centers in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the organization’s director, Scott Moore.

    “This budget cut is not only harmful to children, but research shows it will result in higher special education costs in the future,” Moore said. “So it’s bad for kids and bad for the state budget.”

    The state budget is still in negotiations until the Legislature passes a final bill in June.





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  • Biden immigration order could help thousands of California children

    Biden immigration order could help thousands of California children


    A woman holds a placard saying “No human is illegal” during an August 7, 2023, march on the Golden Gate Bridge.

    Credit: Michael Ho Wai Lee / SOPA Images/Sipa USA

    Tens of thousands of children in California stand to benefit from a new executive order by the Biden administration that would provide a pathway to citizenship for their parents.

    Advocates said the new program will improve children’s financial security, physical health, mental health and will help them stay focused in school.

    Biden announced in June a new program that will allow undocumented immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens to apply for permanent residency without returning to their home countries, if they have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years and have no criminal record. In the past, undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens could apply for permanent residency, but they had to return to their home countries to finalize the process and could be barred from the U.S. for up to 10 years. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin accepting applications in August.

    The Department of Homeland Security estimates that about 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens and 50,000 children of applicants who are stepchildren of U.S. citizens will be eligible for the new program nationwide. About 120,000 spouses of U.S. citizens will be eligible for the program in California, according to an analysis by the organization FWD.us of data from the 2022 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

    Many of those eligible likely have children. An estimated 1 in 10 children in California have at least one undocumented parent, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. It is not clear how many of them also have a U.S. citizen parent.

    “When this was announced, it was like a huge sigh of relief,” said Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children’s Partnership, a nonprofit children’s advocacy organization based in Los Angeles. “The opportunity that families are going to be able to stay together as they apply for permanent residency is a direct commitment to child well-being. It’s an acknowledgment that parents and caregivers are critical to children’s healthy development.”

    Some research shows that the fear of deportation of a parent or caregiver impacts children’s ability to do well in school. 

    “Absenteeism, repeating a grade and dropping out are all more likely” for children who have an undocumented parent, said Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, associate professor of education at UC Santa Barbara. She added that undocumented parents are also less likely to apply for public programs for which their U.S. citizen children are eligible, like Head Start, food stamps and public health insurance.

    Modesto resident Mirna Cisneros, whose husband and three children are U.S. citizens, said she was elated when she found out about the new policy.

    “Imagine, I even cried when I found out,” Cisneros said in Spanish. Still, she said she won’t truly believe it until she is actually able to apply for permanent residency.

    Cisneros came to the U.S. from Mexico in 1999, when she was 17. She met her husband in Florida, and later moved with him to California. Though her husband is a U.S. citizen, she has not been able to obtain permanent residency through him. She was going to apply, but stopped the process after realizing that she would have to return to Mexico and might have to stay there for 10 years.

    Cisneros said her three children, who are 17, 16 and 11 years old and are also U.S. citizens, have told her many times they are afraid she will be deported. She said her middle son told her, “’Mamá, I’m always thinking about what will happen if they grab you and take you to Mexico. I’m going to miss you. What will happen if we can’t see you?’”

    If she is able to get permanent residency, she said, it would allow her to work in better-paying jobs to help support her family. She currently bakes and decorates cakes from her home.

    Being able to apply for permanent residency would also give her children more flexibility and freedom to choose where they want to attend college, Cisneros said. Her oldest daughter is set to graduate from high school next year and has told her she wants to attend college out of state, in Florida, but because Cisneros avoids traveling by plane because of her immigration status, her daughter has been planning to give up that dream to attend school closer to home.

    “We know that as soon as they’re able to get a work permit and have the stability of knowing that they’re not going to be deported, that parent will be able to access better employment. That will mean better salaries, better types of jobs that allow parents to be more engaged in their children’s schooling, and that’s going to lead to mental and physical health benefits for parents and children,” said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). The nonprofit organization was one of two dozen groups that sent a letter to the Biden administration in May asking for the change in policy.

    Cervantes pointed to research about how children benefited when their parents received work permits and protection from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, introduced by then-President Barack Obama in 2012 that has allowed hundreds of thousands of people who were brought to the United States as children to temporarily remain in the country and obtain work permits. In one study, children whose mothers were eligible for the deferral program had 50% fewer diagnoses of adjustment and anxiety disorders.

    However, Sattin-Bajaj expressed concern that many immigrants may be hesitant to apply because of the upcoming presidential election and the uncertainty of whether such a policy would be maintained under a new administration, particularly if led by former President Donald Trump.

    “I don’t have a lot of confidence that there’s euphoria right now, because things move so slowly, and it feels like a storm is brewing,” said Sattin-Bajaj.

    Top Republican leaders have rejected the program. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign national press secretary, issued a statement saying, “Biden only cares about one thing — power — and that’s why he is giving mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegals who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democrat Party.”

    Those who qualify for the new program would not be able to vote until they receive citizenship, and they would not be able to apply for citizenship until three years after they get permanent residency.

    Speaker of the House Mike Johnson issued a statement saying he expects the program to be challenged in court and accused President Joe Biden of trying to “play both sides.”

    “The President may think our homeland security is some kind of game that he can try to use for political points, but Americans know this amnesty plan will only incentivize more illegal immigration and endanger Americans,” Johnson said.





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  • Head Start offers path to success for children, families

    Head Start offers path to success for children, families


    Malaya Peterkin and other preschoolers sat in bright blue chairs around a table on a recent afternoon, listening raptly to teacher Rachel Cepeda read a book about butterflies. Afterward, the children created butterfly-themed pieces of art.

    Malaya, age 5, attends the Head Start program at the Sharon Geese Early Learning Center in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood of Sacramento. Her mother, Timeisha Seymore, is confident her daughter will be prepared for kindergarten next school year. 

    “She hasn’t started kindergarten yet, and she can already read,” Seymore said. “My son is doing math already. He’s 4. … You know, they are learning, they are bringing these tools, and we are just ecstatic about it.”

    The children also learn science and, because of the diverse teacher workforce, languages that include Spanish and Mandarin, Seymore said.

    Malaya Peterkin, 5, listens as Rachel Cepeda reads aloud at the Sharon Neese Early Learning Center in Sacramento on April 23, 2025.
    Credit: Randall Benton / EdSource

    Seymore is among the many low-income parents who count on Head Start to prepare their children for kindergarten and to care for them while they work. The program, run locally by schools and nonprofit organizations, serves more than 750,000 children nationwide from birth to 5 years old.

    Now, Head Start parents, teachers and other supporters are worried that potential cuts during federal budget negotiations could either reduce the number of children who can attend the program or eliminate it.

    Program is more than child care

    Students in the Head Start program, operated by the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA), spend their days learning through play in brightly colored classrooms filled with books, blocks, toys and games. Children on tricycles zoom around the fenced playground, play in a giant sandbox or climb on a jungle gym under the watchful eyes of school staff during recess. 

    “It’s an amazing place,” Seymore said. “I love Head Start. My family would not be the same without Head Start.”

    The Sharon Neese Early Learning Center’s program serves 60 preschool students and 29 toddlers. It is one of more than 100 Head Start programs, serving a total of 4,400 students, that SETA operates at schools and other community sites in the Sacramento region.

    Head Start not only teaches children foundational math and reading skills, they receive healthy meals, referrals to dental and medical services, and behavioral support, said Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California.

    Head Start teachers, who work with students as young as 18 months, sometimes potty-train the children, teach them to wash their hands, how to eat healthy foods and how to take care of their bodies, said Annabel Stofer, who has been a teacher in the Sacramento program for 23 years.

    Annabel Stofer, a 23-year Head Start teacher in Sacramento, says the federal program provides much more than quality child care. “We also support the family and the students to reach their potential, to connect them with resources, referrals, services that their children may need,” Stopher says.
    Credit: Randall Benton / EdSource

    “Head Start is not just a great place for high-quality child care, we also support the family and the students to reach their potential, to connect them with resources, referrals, services that their children may need that they might not even know about,” Stofer said.

    Head Start serves children in deep poverty

    Head Start started in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. It serves children who are homeless, in foster care, on public assistance or whose family income is below the federal poverty level — currently $32,150 annually for a family of four. A limited number of students from families with slightly higher incomes are eligible if space allows. 

    “In a family living in deep poverty, parents are focused on, how am I going to pay rent, how am I going to buy food,” Cottrill said. “They don’t have much capability to focus on A, B, C’s and 1, 2, 3’s.” 

    Early Head Start programs enroll children before they are born, allowing their mothers access to prenatal services and home visits. After the child’s birth, Head Start staff screen the baby for developmental delays. Children as young as 18 months can take part in Early Head Start classroom-based programs for toddlers.

    Jackie Stephens had a home visit from a Head Start worker the morning she spoke to EdSource. The worker checked on her newborn son, Elijah, and offered lactation support. Stephens has been struggling to get Elijah to breastfeed. She tried to schedule an appointment with her medical provider but was told she would have to wait a week.

    “Head Start is about children,” a teary-eyed Stephens said as she discussed the possible funding cuts. “I get the funding part, and I understand, I truly do. But you have to look at the bigger picture — on the effect that it’s having on these children, that it’s helping these parents who are trying to work, who are trying to do better for their family. For something to be ripped apart because of money, it just doesn’t seem right to me. … I pray that it doesn’t happen.”

    Parents are involved

    Family engagement is important at Head Start. Parents are involved at every level of the organization, including as members of the National Head Start board. 

    Teachers meet with parents throughout the year to ensure families aren’t in need of services and to develop educational plans for students. They also help families with their child’s transition to kindergarten — helping them navigate immunization and medical requirements and registration, Stofer said.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r6on2Twj0s

    “We’re a family,” she said. “… I consider these children my grandchildren, too. I have three of my own. But these children are equally as important to me emotionally.”

    Stofer finds it difficult to believe the program, in existence for 60 years, could be gone in one presidential administration.

    “I can’t even imagine a world without Head Start,” she said.

    What could replace Head Start?

    If Head Start funding is cut, preschool-age students could be eligible for the California State Preschool Program, which enrolls children beginning at age 3, and transitional kindergarten (TK), which enrolls them at age 4. 

    But Head Start supporters say TK doesn’t offer all the services that low-income families need and that its shorter day isn’t long enough for working families. Head Start programs are generally available at least six hours a day.

    About 75% of all Head Start programs also operate California State Preschool programs at their site with similar services and hours. Early childhood education programs often weave funding from both Head Start and the California State Preschool programs to provide or expand services to all their students.

    But the state isn’t expected to increase funding for additional seats in the California State Preschool Program in the near future, Cottrill said. That means that while early childhood education programs might remain open if Head Start funds are cut, they may have to close centers or eliminate seats, she said.

    California program meets local needs

    California’s Head Start program is unique in that it is designed to meet local needs, Cottrill said. There are Head Start programs in homeless shelters, at schools, in community centers and in private homes.

    Map: Head Start programs across California

    Use the map to explore current Head Start programs across the state, including their status and capacity.

    “One of my favorite examples is that we have a preschool program that is kitty-corner from a library, so they take the parents to the library, and they help them get their library card and access everything that the library has to offer,” Cottrill said. “So, really, it’s about uplifting the entire family.”

    In rural areas of the state, Head Start staff make home visits, offering curriculum to parents and helping them understand their child’s development. 

    Cottrill is hopeful that Head Start will survive upcoming budget negotiations in Washington.

    “What a tragedy it would be to end the program after 60 years of supporting the American Dream,” Cottrill said. “That’s really what we’re talking about, right? This program builds that. It sets people up on a path for success when they did not have it before.”





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