Blog Post

Head Start Survives Trump Elimination Threat But Remains at Risk Thanks to Project 2025

Project 2025 caused waves of shock and outrage last year when the nation got a glimpse of an extreme and detailed blueprint for the future. Even though President Donald Trump tried to distance himself from it on the campaign trail, since taking office he’s already started implementing many of the blueprint’s attacks on women and families.  

In the last five months Trump has acted on Project 2025 ideas including many that harm women, girls, and LGBTQI+ people, and that rollback abortion access. At the same time, Trump has led attacks on our social infrastructure paired with aggressive (and mostly illegal) moves to reshape the government. The latest: a range of attacks on the Head Start program including a leaked proposal to eliminate the program, coincidentally an idea that can be found on page 482 of Project 2025. While the elimination of Head Start wasn’t included in Trump’s budget request to Congress after all, that is likely due to the thousands of people who rallied to advocate and defend the program—something that will need to keep happening because attacks on Head Start are not expected to end any time soon.   

Head Start is a critical program providing a range of services to children, families, and entire communities. But before we get into that, let’s talk about how attacks to child care and early learning opportunities like Head Start are anti-family and thinly veiled attacks on women’s rights. When families have access to child care, the whole family thrives. Parents are able to work or pursue education, build up their financial stability, and focus on their long-term investments like paying down debt, saving, or contributing to their retirement. Mothers in particular are more able to find work and stay employed when there is access to stable and affordable early care and education for their children. Yet, in the first few months of the Trump administration, families have faced waves of unpredictability and chaos through funding freezes, office closures, and staff layoffs for Head Start programs across the country. Some local Head Start programs have already had to close their doors and many program directors are encountering impediments to spending their approved budgets.  

Without these support systems, parents (typically mothers) need to cut their work hours or leave the workforce entirely. And that just might be the point. Men like Trump and Elon Musk support the pronatalist movement – basically any efforts, including government policy, to increase the number of babies born. They say they want more babies but refuse to increase the critical support services families need to thrive because they don’t seem to care if women are pushed out of the workforce. Frankly, that’s probably one of their goals—because that’s exactly what Project 2025 suggests.   

Protecting Head Start, child care, and early learning opportunities is inextricable from defending women’s rights and hard-fought freedoms. No Nazi-inspired motherhood medals or measly $5,000 baby bonus should distract us from the real support systems that children and families need.  

So, if you’re fired up and ready to fight fascism by supporting Head Start, here’s a quick FAQ to get you started:   

What is the Head Start program and what does it do for families?   

Head Start (which includes Early Head Start and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start) began as an anti-poverty program in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty efforts. Head Start programs have served millions of families for almost 60 years, including nearly  800,000 children and pregnant people in the last year alone.   

Head Start programs operate in all 50 states and offer a wide range of services for children, pregnant people, and families, including: early childhood education; indoor and outdoor physical activity; social and emotional support; nutrition education along with meals and snacks; mental health services and health and dental screenings; financial literary classes; family engagement opportunities; help finding child care, employment, and transportation services; and providing a career path for many parents who become Head Start staff (among many more services!).  

Head Start programs also reserve a certain percentage of slots for children with identified needs (such as physical and developmental delays), children in foster care, and children and pregnant people experiencing homelessness. Additionally, Early Head Start provides prenatal and postpartum information, education, and services to pregnant people.  

Congress funds Head Start through the Department of Health and Human Services, which then distributes funds to qualifying recipients (like school districts, nonprofit and for-profit groups, faith-based institutions, tribal councils, and other organizations) to lead Head Start programming that is responsive to the specific needs of their community. Head Start programs serve families with low incomes at no cost to them, with the goal to prepare children for success in school and in life.   

Why is Head Start under attack in the Trump administration?  

For decades, conservative think tanks and leaders have been attacking the Head Start program with the intent to dismantle it. Why? Because it has a proven record of supporting vulnerable children and families. Conservatives attack Head Start despite the fact that (or perhaps because) the program supports families with low incomes. Head Start allows families to gain skills, access child care while they find stable employment, and receive comprehensive supports across education, health, and case management that continue for families even if they lose their jobs or are searching for work. Head Start also gives children—particularly children of color, from rural areas, with disabilities, in foster care, experiencing homelessness, or of varying immigration statuses—the necessary supports to build resilience, do well in school, and be more economically stable in adulthood.    

If the Project 2025 blueprint and Trump’s first few months in office show us anything, it’s this: nothing threatens an authoritarian regime more than an equitable and well-educated society, starting from the earliest years—exactly the society that Head Start creates.   

Trump floated eliminating Head Start, but didn’t end up doing it. Is the program safe now?   

When President Trump sent his budget to Congress earlier this month, it did not include eliminating Head Start as had been expected. Since then, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that Head Start funding won’t be cut, yet has not acknowledged the harm that Trump’s funding freezes and staff layoffs have already caused to Head Start’s programming, children, and families. These actions are seen by some advocates as intentional attacks to weaken Head Start and eliminate it by other means, so much so that the ACLU has now filed a lawsuit stating that by slashing staff, delaying funding, and imposing bans that block programs from fulfilling their mission to support young children from low-income families, the administration is defying Congress’s mandate to continue Head Start services nationwide. While the threat of elimination is gone—for now—we must continue advocating to protect Head Start.  

To learn more about how Head Start is crucial to so many communities, including in your own area, check out this resource from our partners at Center for American Progress: 5 Things To Know About Head Start – Center for American Progress.