Head Start at risk of elimination after 58 years serving toddlers and children in low-income families
GOLETA, Calif. - All eyes on Capitol Hill ahead of an upcoming House budget reconciliation vote which is expected to include another round of federal cuts that could take aim at Head Start, a lifeline for hundreds of local families.
"We are just devastated at the potential loss of the program," said Patricia Keelean, CEO of CommUnify. "We know that this is the first step to ensuring that they (children from low income and poverty-level families) have a solid education and a real chance at success as young adults."
CommUnify, a Santa Barbara County nonprofit organization, oversees Head Start, which is federally funded.
Word spread quickly on Wednesday following Tuesday's abrupt closure by the Trump Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region 9 Office in San Francisco which oversees Head Start in California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii, among others.
"We believe now that what we are seeing is the first step and the potential defunding or elimination of the Head Start Program," said Keelean.
Keelean was among local educators at the Head Start in Goleta who explained that the Trump Administration's Project 2025 includes eliminating the Head Start preschool program nationwide -- the House vote could accomplish that.
Keelean said the local Head Start nonprofit has served more than 55,000 poverty and low income children throughout Santa Barbara County since its inception in 1967.
Locally, there are 23 Head Start locations from Carpinteria to Guadalupe and, New Cuyama. Those in the know say these cuts would be devastating to an estimated 600 families across the county.
"There's going to be a domino effect on the local economy as well because we know the ag community as well as private businesses and our hotel and service industries rely on many of the families that receive Head Start services," said Keelean.
"These cuts will impact the very people that our administration and folks in government right now say they want to serve the most," said James Kyriaco, Head Start Chair and Goleta City Councilman.
