Trump administration threatens to gut Head Start rules, affecting 70,000 kids in California

The Trump administration announced plans to strip away decades of regulations that define Head Start, a federal early childhood program serving seventy thousand children in California. According to CalMatters, the administration's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs wants to significantly reduce—or possibly eliminate—standards for teacher-to-student ratios, teacher qualifications, and requirements that Head Start accept all low-income families regardless of disability or immigration status. Experts warn that without these safeguards, programs would likely hire less qualified teachers, accept larger class sizes, and cut back parent involvement. Head Start, created in nineteen sixty-five as part of President Johnson's War on Poverty, has been built around the mission of giving low-income children a path to college and professional careers—a goal that would be at risk if the standards disappear.

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