Padilla Joins Bill to Expand Head Start Early Learning Program for Working-Class Families

WASHINGTON, D.C. - As the Trump Administration continues to attack and undermine Head Start, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), in introducing the Head Start for America's Children Act. This sweeping legislation would expand Head Start to ensure that more than 11 million young children from working-class families can access high-quality early education and comprehensive services, while also ensuring Head Start educators earn the wages they deserve.

California's Head Start program is the largest in the nation. In Fiscal Year 2023 alone, Head Start and Early Head Start programs served more than 94,000 children across the state. These programs offer critical support to children by integrating early education with health, nutrition, and family services, providing targeted support to those facing poverty, housing insecurity, and systemic inequities.

"Investing in our children is one of the best ways we can uplift working-class families and give everyone a fair shot at the American Dream. Yet Donald Trump and RFK Jr. have decimated Head Start, eliminating essential support staff and withholding $1 billion from the program," said Senator Padilla. "We should be empowering our next generation - not taking an axe to this vital program to fund tax cuts for billionaires. This sweeping legislation would support over 11 million young children while ensuring teachers can earn a living wage and parents can keep working and contributing to our economy."

"In the richest country in the history of the world, we have a moral responsibility to provide high-quality early childhood education and child care for our children. Instead, President Trump has illegally withheld funds from Head Start and slashed critical programs for children and families to pay for $1 trillion in tax breaks for the top 1% and over $900 billion in tax breaks for large corporations," said Senator Sanders. "I have a different idea: Let's expand and fully fund Head Start to make sure it reaches every eligible young child, extend the length of programs so working families don't have to find additional child care and raise teacher pay so educators are not forced to leave the field or work a second job just to make ends meet. At a time of greater income and wealth inequality than ever before, it is unconscionable for President Trump and Republicans in Congress to hand tax cuts to billionaires while slashing education funding, including for Head Start. If we are serious about caring about our young children, we must expand Head Start programs across the country to reach every working-class family."

For 60 years, local Head Start programs have provided high-quality early education and comprehensive services for more than 40 million children and working-class families. Today, nearly 800,000 children receive early education, health and dental care, and healthy meals through Head Start, while their families access referrals for job training, adult education, nutrition services, and housing support.

Research shows that the first five years of a child's life are critical for social, emotional, and cognitive development. Head Start children are better prepared for kindergarten, have better health outcomes, and are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college. Yet in America today, families in most states pay more for child care than rent, mortgage payments, or in-state college tuition. High-quality early learning opportunities remain out of reach for millions, with 5.3 million children under the age of 6 - nearly 17% of children in America - living in poverty in 2023.

Specifically, the Head Start for America's Children Act would:

• Fully fund Head Start to serve 11 million eligible young children and simplify enrollment;

• Align program hours with working families' schedules so parents do not need additional child care;

• Raise Head Start educator pay to at least $60,000 a year and establish salary scales and competitive benefits;

• Provide recruitment and retention incentives grants for up to 12,500 educators;

• Expand co-location of Head Start programs on college campuses and partnerships with child care providers;

• Strengthen and diversify the early educator pipeline to prepare at least 3,000 teachers over five years;

• Improve mental health services for Head Start staff, families and children; and

• Invest in facility upgrades, including removing lead contamination in paint and water.

In addition to Padilla, the bill is also cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The legislation is endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers, Zero to Three, MomsRising, the National Women's Law Center Action Fund, UnidosUS, Child Care for Every Family Network, The Arc of the United States, Council for Exceptional Children, Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children, New America's Early and Elementary Education Policy Program, and the Vermont Head Start Association.

Senator Padilla has been a leading advocate in condemning the Trump Administration's attacks on Head Start and child care. Earlier this year, Padilla and Senators Luján and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) led 25 Senators in slamming the Trump Administration's mass firings of federal employees at the Office of Head Start (OHS) and the Office of Child Care (OCC) and demanding Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. immediately reinstate these employees. Padilla also joined 41 Senators in another letter blasting the Trump Administration's direct attacks on the Head Start program. As the Trump Administration considered eliminating Head Start funding during federal budget discussions, Padilla joined the entire California Democratic Congressional Delegation in urging President Trump and Secretary Kennedy to safeguard federal funding for the Head Start program.

A summary of the bill is available here.

Full text of the bill is available here.

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