The Trump administration is asking Congress to eliminate funding for Head Start, a move that would cut early education for more than half a million of the nation’s neediest children and child care for their families.
The proposal is tucked in a 64-page internal draft budget document obtained by The Associated Press that seeks deep cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start. It is still in a highly preliminary phase as the White House prepares to send Congress its budget request for the 2026 fiscal year.
It is not clear if the proposed cuts will be accepted by lawmakers. While Congress often ignores a president’s budget request, the proposed elimination of Head Start highlights the administration’s priorities as President Donald Trump seeks to overhaul education in the United States.
“The budget does not fund Head Start,” according to the draft. It says eliminating the program is consistent with the Trump administration’s “goals of returning control of education to the states and increasing parental control.”
“The federal government should not be in the business of mandating curriculum, locations, and performance standards for any form of education,” the document says.
Spokespeople for Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has vowed to dismantle the Department of Education, has banned diversity initiatives at schools and has frozen funding at several elite universities in an attempt to force change at colleges that Republicans say have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism.
The Head Start program had already been hit this year by layoffs and funding lags, along with a glitch this winter that briefly locked preschool providers out of their federal accounts. The private and public schools that run Head Start classrooms are deeply reliant on federal money, and this year’s funding problems have caused some preschools to close temporarily.
Those closures cut off child care for hundreds of thousands of low-income families, for whom a day without work is often a day without pay.
The National Head Start Association said it was “deeply alarmed” by the administration’s proposal to stop funding the six-decade-old program.
“It reflects a divestment in our future,” said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the NHSA, in a statement Thursday. “Eliminating funding for Head Start would be catastrophic. It would be a direct attack on our nation’s most at-risk children, their well-being, and their families.”
Head Start is more than just a preschool program, Vinci said. It provides meals and health screenings and helps level the playing field for children who might otherwise fall behind before starting kindergarten. Many Head Start children are in foster care or are homeless.
A lag in funding to Head Start since January has caused some Head Start preschool classrooms to close. The federal government has distributed $1.6 billion for Head Start from Jan. 1 through Tuesday, compared with $2.55 billion issued during the same period last year, according to the office of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., which has been analyzing a federal database. Murray said the Trump administration had “slow-walked” funding appropriated by Congress.
“This administration believes we cannot afford to help families get preschool or help kids get basic health services, but we can afford trillions of dollars more in tax breaks for billionaires,” Murray said earlier this week. “It’s offensive and just plain wrong, and let me be clear: Democrats won’t let a proposal like this go anywhere in Congress.”
“But that doesn’t mean Head Start and so many other programs aren’t under grave threat — because Trump has proven he’ll ignore our laws and do whatever he can to break these programs on his own,” Murray said.
Head Start operates in all 50 states. Parents who otherwise would not be able to afford child care rely on it when they work or go to school. Supporters say that underscores the importance of Head Start to the economy and at-risk children alike.
While Head Start has enjoyed bipartisan support since its creation under President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, some Republicans have emphasized its shortcomings and criticized efforts to increase funding. And Project 2025, the policy blueprint created by the conservative Heritage Foundation, called for eliminating Head Start altogether.
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AP Education Writers Cheyanne Mumphrey and Moriah Balingit contributed.
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