If HHS Doesn't Pay For Head Start, Society Will: Teaching Matters SVP Says Program Helps Taxpayers

Forbes Breaking News

Last month in a draft budget, the Trump administration floated the possibility of cutting funding for Head Start. Since then, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before a Senate subcommittee vowing that his department will preserve the program. Mathew Moura, Senior Vice President of Strategy at Teaching Matters, joined Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss.

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now

00:08is Matthew Mora, Senior Vice President of Strategy at Teaching Matters. Matthew, thank you so much

00:12for joining me. Thank you for having me. I'm grateful for the conversation today, Matthew,

00:17because you've worked with a program we are going to be talking about at length, and that is Head

00:22Start. Last month in a draft budget, the Trump administration floated the possibility of cutting

00:27funding for the program. And since then, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before

00:33a Senate subcommittee, vowing that his department will preserve the program and not cut it. So first,

00:39to start off the conversation, can you explain exactly what the program is and who Head Start

00:43serves? Yeah, I mean, so most parents are going to access child care through private child care

00:51services or some type of subsidized child care service. That's something where based on income,

00:56they'll be paying a portion or they'll be paying the full amount. Also, parents have access to

01:01universal pre-K, which is in the public schools. So it's almost indistinguishable from a parent's

01:06perspective to dropping your kid off for kindergarten, picking them up between 2.30 and 3 o'clock.

01:12Head Start is very different. Head Start is an income-eligible program. It's full day, year-round,

01:19providing what's known as wraparound care. In addition to Head Start, just to say probably its biggest

01:25distinction compared to those other aspects of child care or early childhood education is it's

01:31a family program. The unit of care is the family as well as the child. So when you enter a Head Start

01:38service from a parent's perspective, you're given family support. You're helped with how to navigate

01:44and secure, adequate, and sustainable housing. Medical care access is a big focus on nutrition

01:51and mental health services. It's really a whole child program. And nationwide, it serves almost a

01:59million students. It impacts a lot of students. And I've had conversations with people from both sides

02:06of the aisle talking about just how critical access to child care is. So I know that when the Trump budget

02:13draft was initially floated, there was an uproar over potential Head Start cuts. Why do you think

02:19the administration reversed course and the program is not being cut now? And RFK Jr. said, we are

02:25preserving this. Yeah, I mean, I will say we're all very thankful that the program is being preserved.

02:31I think there's three big reasons. One, the program serves the entire country. 49% of Head Starts exist

02:39within rural congressional districts. It's not an exclusively, you know, program for metropolitan

02:45areas. It's the entire country being served. Two, it has results, not just, you know, immediate results,

02:51but results that have been showcased over the decades since its inception. I think three, those results have

02:59a very clear monetary basis, both in terms of the amount of money that it saves society. You'll oftentimes

03:08hear something along the lines of, for every dollar spent in Head Start, society or, you know,

03:13the United States sees about $7 in return, which is the low estimate. It's about $7 to $15 it's been

03:20calculated. That is a very hard economic, you know, benefit to walk back from.

03:28So, and you said that in your letter to the editor in the Washington Post, you said,

03:33not only is this beneficial for the students and the families this serves, it also helps the

03:37taxpayers. And I want to read part of what you wrote. You wrote this, quote, last month, the White

03:42House proposed to eliminate funding for Head Start, a program that has provided critical early childhood

03:47education and family support services since 1965. Though the administration has since reversed course

03:53and did not include the cuts in its proposed 2026 budget, the program is still at risk. Why are you

03:59raising alarm bells here? Why do you think that the program is still at risk?

04:04I think one of the biggest risks for Head Start or one of the questions we can ask ourselves is,

04:09how can Head Start get to such amazing results considering the fact that it's underfunded? So for

04:16800,000 is about the number of Head Start students that are served each year compared to most public school

04:22systems, that's less than one third per child. So for a Head Start, it's about $13,000 per child. I think

04:31the national average for K to 12 is almost $30,000 per child. So it is kind of always under this threat

04:38because it's an underfunded and continuously underfunded program. So to take any sort of resources

04:44from it or to add confusion to the system where schools and centers and all of these care providers

04:51don't know when they're going to be, say, reimbursed for their services, when their next grant cycle is

04:59going to be, that just adds a lot of stress to an already extremely stressed system.

05:05And Senator Tammy Baldwin, when she was questioning Secretary Kennedy in a Senate subcommittee hearing,

05:11she said that her state of Wisconsin is concerned about what she described as the uncertainty and

05:16instability surrounding the program under the Trump administration. In your position at Teaching

05:21Matters, is that something you've experienced? Is that something you've witnessed, this uncertainty

05:25and instability when it comes to Head Start? Yeah, so I've actually been in Head Start services and

05:32supporting that. I was a Head Start teacher. I was a Head Start center director for the past 15 years.

05:37There has never been a year in which there hasn't been a question of what is this program going to

05:43look like and is funding secure? I will also say, just thinking about like with the pandemic, for

05:51example, Head Starts didn't close. Childcares didn't close. In fact, those are some of the only services

05:58that remained specifically for first responders. Like, it is our duty as a country to make sure that we are

06:05investing in these programs and making sure that we are there for them in the way that they have been for us for

06:12decades.

06:14And I want to read part of the back and forth between Senator Baldwin and Secretary Kennedy, because I think it's

06:20eye opening. She said that her state of Wisconsin saw funding delays in certain Head Start programs, and at least one

06:26was temporarily shuttered while it was waiting for this funding. And she asked the Secretary this, quote,

06:31what would you say to a parent who shows up for child care or for Head Start and the doors are

06:36closed? RFK Jr. said, I would be very sad. Baldwin continued and said, what is causing delays in

06:42Head Start funding? And Kennedy said, I fought very hard to make sure that Head Start gets all of its

06:46funding next year. And Baldwin then responded, well, we need it this year. Why are there delays now?

06:52And Kennedy said, I don't know that there are, Senator. I will look into it, but there should not be any

06:56delays. When you hear that, are you surprised that he's surprised that there are funding delays?

07:01Because you said this isn't necessarily Trump administration specific. There's this uncertainty

07:07every year.

07:09Yeah, I'm not surprised whatsoever. And, you know, in fairness to everyone involved, this is a wildly

07:15complex system. It is not the case that a child care center operates, has, you know, one check that

07:20comes into the mail and pays for everything. These are one, reimbursement systems. And two,

07:26it's either directly through the federal government. Sometimes it's through a, what we call

07:31super grantees or super delegates. There's, you know, probably a hundred different ways that a

07:37child care center or a Head Start center is going to access that funding. It's not simple. If the

07:42argument is to make it simple, that would be fantastic. Nobody in the field would be against

07:47that. I will say, though, one of the challenges has been in, say, shuttering the Head Start field

07:54offices. Those offices provide grantee support. They provide compliance, you know, maintaining

08:01that lack of infrastructure or the question around that infrastructure adds to, again,

08:08a very confusing system.

08:11And you want, obviously, to protect Head Start. And you're saying the funding needs to be there,

08:16but there's other questions aside from the money or not questions rather, but things I think you would

08:21want to see change to make that instability, that uncertainty go away when it comes to the

08:25infrastructure. I mean, what would some of those changes you propose be because you've worked so

08:29intimately with Head Start?

08:33I would say that, first and foremost, that comes to mind, simply funding Head Start at the level we do

08:39regular, quote unquote, public education would be transformative to the entire country.

08:46Oftentimes, when I had said before, with Head Start, it's a family support program that has a

08:52childcare component. That is why it has astounding outcomes over time for the family, for communities,

08:59for kids. In my, you know, coming back from that background, my personal view, if the K to 12 space

09:07understood what Head Start does well and adopted a lot of those policies, you would see a transformed

09:12country. So first and foremost, just have a parody with what we put into the public school system

09:19for Head Start. And I want to read another quote from RFK Jr. about Head Start that he said in a

09:25Senate subcommittee hearing. After he said he's not going to cut funding, he says that the department's

09:30goal is to, quote, emphasize healthy eating in Head Start and ensure the program continues to serve

09:35it's 750,000 children and parents effectively. Overall, when you heard his testimony on Head Start,

09:42what he had to say about it, what do you make of that? Were you relieved? Were you skeptical when you

09:46hear that he wants to emphasize healthy eating? I mean, what do you think?

09:50Yeah, you know, one of the things that comes to mind that I think people might not be familiar with,

09:55Head Start exists in health and human services. It does not exist under the Department of Education.

10:01And the reason for that is because it serves all these other functions for families. Nutrition,

10:07healthy eating habits, mental health support, all of that is within Head Start and a very clear

10:14sort of focus behind the program. So, I mean, he's the Secretary of Health and Human Services. That's why

10:20it's under his domain and as it should be. That is something that, you know, over the years,

10:26both parties have been very strong about making sure that it exists in that department.

10:34And I know that you think that this is at risk. You're not the only person who thinks this program

10:38is at risk. I mean, what does, do you think the country look like if Head Start eventually does get

10:45cut? If Head Start, something does happen to it? There is, continues to be this uncertainty,

10:50this instability, this confusion.

10:52Yeah, I would say there's probably three big things that come to mind. One, just the logistical

10:58end. The size of Head Start is equivalent to the entire K to 8th grade in like Arizona or Virginia.

11:06So imagine just, you know, shuttering down an entire state's education system overnight.

11:10That would be detrimental for a number of reasons. But two, it has economic consequences.

11:16First and foremost, somebody's going to pay that dollar. When we say one to seven,

11:23so what's going to happen to the other $6 now? Society does pay for that. You pay for it in

11:28higher property taxes. You pay for that in higher state budgets. You pay for that in terms of what

11:34happens when folks lose income, when folks thinking about the other effects of Head Start,

11:40things like lower rates going to prison or recidivism, somebody is going to pay that bill.

11:47Do you think that's what's missing from this conversation too, aside from just how beneficial

11:52and life-changing Head Start is to certain families, that this is actually a program that

11:57benefits the taxpayer?

11:58Yeah, it absolutely benefits the taxpayer in two ways. Like one, in terms of the savings, of course.

12:08But two, one of the reasons that Head Start has been under sort of the gun in terms of budgets over

12:13the years is the feeling that, you know, maybe states should be the one who's paying for this,

12:18as opposed to the federal government. The problem is, for anyone who pays property taxes,

12:23you know that that's not an inextinguishable kind of amount. Enough is enough at a certain point.

12:28So this is what I mean, like when you cut the program, somebody is still going to have to pay

12:33for this. States, on the whole, have to have a balanced budget each year. And these are the

12:39kinds of programs that get cut if they were solely based on state budgets. This is where the federal

12:44government does things best. It equalizes, it can invest in sort of a program over the long term,

12:52and bring stability to the program.

12:55And let's say instead of sitting across from me right now talking to me,

13:00Secretary Kennedy was right here, and you had a chance to give him a message about Head Start.

13:05What would that message be?

13:09Very simply, this is the program that people would pay top dollar otherwise to have their kids go to.

13:17It's wraparound care. It provides support over the long term.

13:20It provides, you know, social, emotional, cognitive, everything you can think of.

13:26This is a program worth investing in.

13:29Matthew Mora, I appreciate the conversation today. And as more

13:32matters relating to education and Head Start come to light, I hope we can

13:37continue conversations and break them down together. Thank you so much for joining me.

13:41Thank you so much.

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