Withdraw the Proposed Head Start Rule Rewrite - Restore Standards

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you to pressure Health and Human Services leadership to withdraw the proposed rewrite of the Head Start Program Performance Standards. This must happen immediately and in its entirety. This is the largest overhaul in the program's 60-year history, but far from improving the program, it would gut the evidence-based requirements that make Head Start work for more than 700,000 children every year. The damage would be real and immediate. Removing teacher-child ratio requirements and developmental screening standards puts children's safety at risk. Capping administrative spending at 5 percent — when only 3.7 percent of programs meet that threshold today — will force closures, especially in small and rural communities where Head Start is the only child care option available. HHS's own estimates project the loss of 40,000 jobs and $167 million in cuts to health services. Families who lose program hours and covered essentials like diapers and formula will be pushed onto state assistance programs that may not even exist in their area. More than 360 state legislators from all 50 states have already called on HHS to rescind this rule. I stand with them. Instead I urge you to excoriate the Trump HHS leadership and force them to pursue policies that strengthen Head Start consistent with its statute. Anything less would be to dismantle what has successfully shaped children's lives for six decades, to the benefit of all. Save Head Start. Thank you.