EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KOAA) — For Megan Parnell, getting access to Head Start was a relief not only for her two children to have quality child care, but because she was hired by the program herself, working as a teaching assistant.
“My husband and I both can work, so we can pay bills, so we can provide for our kids,” said Parnell. “It gives us a hope, a light at the end of the tunnel that we didn't really have last fall. We were really struggling last fall, and we needed something. And Head Start provided it.”
Parnell works for CPCD, which runs the Head Start and Early Head Start programs in El Paso County. The program began about 60 years ago, coming out of the civil rights movement.
Head Start operates in all 50 states and provides child care for low income and at-risk children, whose families could otherwise not afford care.
According to CPCD, in El Paso County, over 1,000 children are enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start this year.
91% of the children are below the poverty level or very low income. 24% are military children of active duty or veteran parents. 10% of the children were homeless at the time of enrollment.
Parnell said Head Start provides stability for families and worries about what could happen if the program is taken away.
“They no longer have the resources or the community or the child care to be able to go and work. They're stuck at home, taking care of their kids because they can't afford this education that their kids deserve,” she said. “That's loss of income for them, that spirals into losing their cars, their housing. You're going to see a whole community impact where more people are homeless.”
Paola Venegas is a single mother with a five-year-old in the Colorado Springs Head Start program. Her other child, now in Kindergarten, also went through Head Start.
Before she moved to Colorado Springs, Venegas lived in Pueblo and had no access to such child care services.
“We had her, my oldest, in the daycare. We would pay close to 400 weekly,” said Venegas. “I was pretty much just working to pay daycare and the food that I could provide for them. I was living paycheck to paycheck.”
Venegas said that with the high cost of child care, families without Head Start could no longer afford groceries and medical expenses.
President Trump's Administration is reportedly recommending a full elimination of Head Start as the president seeks to reform education in the country.
According to the Associated Press and other outlets, a draft budget proposal from the White House is looking to cut the program, potentially leaving over 800,000 vulnerable children and families nationwide at risk.
“Back in early April, we did hear of a leaked budget proposal from the administration or the President's budget that fully eliminated Head Start from the budget,” said Heather Frenz, Executive Director of the Colorado Head Start Association. “And that's exponentially concerning to us because that's not a cut. That's a crisis for children in Colorado.”
Across Colorado, Frenz said Head Start programs serve over 11,000 Colorado children in 34 of the state’s 64 counties. It also employs 5,000 staff members statewide and over 300 in El Paso County.
Since President Trump’s leaked alleged budget proposal is not set in stone, Congress could choose to ignore it, or aspects of it, as the budget process plays out.
Frenz said she’s optimistic there’s enough bipartisan support for the program that they might make it through despite President Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts to cut federal spending. The National Head Start Association said it received $12.1 billion in funding for the 2024 Fiscal Year.
Colorado Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat who recently made headlines for her speeches on the House floor with her newborn son, has been supportive of Head Start, Frenz said.
The entire Colorado Democratic delegation recently sent the president a letter urging him to maintain Head Start funding.
Recently elected Colorado Republican Congressmen Jeff Hurd and Jeff Crank’s offices did not return requests for comment.
In a statement to KOAA, Democratic Senator Michael Bennet urged the president to preserve funding.
“President Trump’s proposal to cut Head Start in the midst of a child care crisis and rising costs would be devastating — especially for our rural communities,” Senator Bennet said. “President Trump must preserve funding for this crucial program.”
In El Paso County, Head Start is considered the largest child care provider, according to nonprofit Joint Initiatives for Youth + Families.
“Head Start is very significant in our community. It serves more than 1,000 children, which makes it our biggest provider here in the community,” said SherryLynn Boyles, CEO for Joint Initiatives. “We would definitely feel the impact of Head Start closing on our childcare system. It also means that the most vulnerable of our children would lose that important service.”
The problem is exacerbated since El Paso County is already considered a child care desert. According to Joint Initiatives, the county has about 47,000 children under the age of six, but only 17,500 child care spots.
With KOAA’s recent reporting that the federal hiring freeze is forcing more military members off base to seek child care, those child care spots are further strained. The loss of Head Start could create widespread ripples through the economy.
“[It] means we have a smaller workforce, a smaller pool for companies and organizations to choose from,” said Boyles. “We have a lot of businesses telling us here in the community that child care is a problem for them, finding enough applicants, as well as for them keeping people.”
Boyles said businesses have told her that parents are often late or missing work altogether due to child care challenges since there aren’t many backup options in the region if there’s a childcare issue.
“Head Start provides enriched programming with highly qualified teachers for kids to get a head start so that they're kindergarten ready,” said Boyles. “And we know kindergarten-ready means better success through their entire educational career. And we know having a good education is important to your whole life.”
A coalition of parents and education providers have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over its proposed cuts to the federally-funded Head Start program providing free services to hundreds of thousands of children from low-income families.
National
Head Start groups sue Trump admin over proposed cuts to child care program
Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTVon X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.
Contact Brett to communicate via encrypted apps like Signal. Due to the sensitive nature of ongoing reporting from federal actions, he is willing to take steps to protect identities.
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