By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Education, child care and nutrition services for tens of thousands of young American children will begin to be cut off on Saturday, as Republicans and Democrats in Congress fail to reach a deal to end the second-longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Funding for the $12.3 billion program that serves some 65,000 children aged up to five years old is set to run out beginning on Saturday, which would be the 32nd day of the shutdown, hitting more than 130 Head Start operations in 41 states and Puerto Rico.
“We will not be providing service to 438 kids in southwest Washington” and their parents, said Rekah Strong, CEO of Educational Opportunities for Children and Families, which operates Head Start programs in Vancouver, just 9 miles (14.5 km) from Portland, Oregon. “It breaks my heart.”
The government shutdown has hit a vast range of programs, including grants for small business loans, federally-backed scientific research and Federal Housing Administration loan applications.
Around 700,000 federal workers have been furloughed and are without paychecks. Starting on Saturday, 42 million people could lose aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.
Some Head Start programs temporarily can continue operating normally during the shutdown because their annual grant renewals are months away. Others up against deadlines have some reserve funds from private contributors that would let them operate for a few days or weeks more.
“I am tremendously disappointed that our country is in a place where individuals who are furthest from opportunity and who just need a little help and support so that their living situations aren’t disastrous or filled with despair,” Strong said in an interview. She declined to say whether she thought Democrats or Republicans were more to blame.
Other Head Start and Early Head Start programs in similar situations include some 3,000 children throughout Washington State, according to Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start. Other programs at risk include 335 in east-central Illinois and 300 in Wisconsin, according to local officials in those states.
ATLANTA REPRIEVE
With federal funding on hold, Head Start program administrators have been looking furiously for ways to plug the hole, mainly through additional state aid or private donations.
The Atlanta metropolitan area’s Head Start programs, with about 5,800 children enrolled, pulled off a 48-hour scramble that on Tuesday resulted in the announcement of a 45-day bridge loan arranged by community organizations and private donors to keep the Head Start doors open.
Another 1,100 Georgia Head Start facilities are seeking similar arrangements, but in the meantime they have begun to notify parents that after Friday, their services will not be available, according to Mindy Binderman, executive director of the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students.
Looking ahead, if Congress cannot find a way to reopen the government in coming weeks, several areas, including large Head Start programs in Chicago, face delays amid December 1 grant renewal deadlines.
Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats continue to blame each other for the shutdown.
“Let’s be clear: Head Start would be funded today if (Senate Democratic Leader) Chuck Schumer ended this shutdown,” said Stephen Lewerenz, a spokesperson with the Republican-run Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Schumer has led his party in opposing a short-term government funding bill unless Republicans negotiate a deal extending a federal healthcare subsidy.
Senator Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the committee, said in a statement to Reuters: “Let’s not forget, Donald Trump is the president who wanted to outright abolish Head Start and he has already thrown Head Start programs into chaos this year by illegally blocking funding” through holds on grants.
Since the start of the Trump administration in January, Head Start, like many federally-backed programs, has come under the microscope of budget-cutters operating largely under the “Project 2025” governing blueprint that urged the termination of Head Start.
It meant delays in grant approvals and the closure of five Department of Health and Human Services regional offices that some Head Start officials connect to bottlenecks. Head Start officials have also been warned against using diversity, equity and inclusion curriculum.
Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, executive director of the Illinois Head Start Association, in an email to Reuters, said that for the first time, the Trump administration has demanded that students clear immigration status probes to participate.
The increased presence of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Chicago under Trump’s immigration crackdown has been disruptive, she said.
“Some programs have moved to providing services virtually as families feel unsafe leaving their home,” she said.
And in mid-October, an immigrant parent was shot and killed by ICE shortly after dropping off his child at a daycare center that operates under the umbrella of Head Start.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Scott Malone and Aurora Ellis)
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