Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. is Turning Head Start Into a Dead End

Whopper of the Week:

RFK JR. IS TURNING HEAD START INTO A DEAD END

“My uncle, Sarge Shriver, founded the program on a simple conviction: strong families, wholesome nutrition, and healthy childhood development can change the course of a child’s life. Today we are returning Head Start to those roots. We are removing unnecessary bureaucracy, strengthening nutrition and physical health, trusting parents and local communities, and opening Head Start to hundreds of thousands more children.” – Secretary Kennedy, August 6, 2026

SUMMARY

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a press release in August announcing proposed changes to Head Start, a pre-kindergarten “education, health, and parenting” program that serves predominantly low-income children. Administered by HHS, Head Start began in 1965 and has served more than 40 million children and their families. HHS Secretary Kennedy proposes to dismantle the program’s standards, reduce its funding, and serve more children. According to Zayn Siddique, former Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, the proposed rules are an “attempt to render Head Start a dead letter.” Secretary Kennedy invokes his family legacy when he says he is “returning” Head Start to its “roots,” but his actions will erase the features that have made Head Start so valuable.

WHY ITS A WHOPPER

Secretary Kennedy’s proposed rule will turn Head Start into a narrower program, with lower quality standards and fewer benefits for children and families. It will deprive poor families of needed Head Start resources, undermining the futures of America’s most disadvantaged children.

Head Start is designed to provide a holistic approach to children’s well-being, with age-appropriate stimulation, education, and socialization. Beyond its high-quality preschool program, Head Start includes a sophisticated set of wraparound services addressing children’s health, dental care, vision, nutrition, and development. It also provides parental support for job training and housing assistance, mental health and crisis intervention, and facilitates parental involvement in the Head Start program. It is estimated that 70% of its budget is for the educational program, 17-20% goes to child health and nutrition services, and 10-13% to parental support, including assistance for parental involvement.

The HHS press release describes a projected expansion of the program by up to 236,000 participants (from 771,121 in 2025) with savings of $2.2 billion (from $12,357 billion total). The average per-child expenditure for the Head Start would be cut from $16,024 to $10,085. Dishonestly, the HHS describes this 37% slashing of in per child appropriations as “the largest known reinvestment in the program since its creation (emphasis added).”

The new rules propose “Aligning Licensing Standards to State Early Childhood Systems.” Adopting state standards for licensure of childcare programs will hollow out Head Start’s federal standards for classroom size and teacher ratios. It is also inappropriate, as the comprehensive goals of Head Start are very different from those of daycare facilities. Shifting authority to the states is a ploy by the administration to destroy the quality of Head Start programs while avoiding direct responsibility for the consequences.

The proposed regulations will undermine the timeliness of comprehensive child health assessments and eliminate the requirement for parental committees. The regulations will also increase the documentation burden for parents to enroll their children and eliminate proactive recruitment for disabled, foster, and homeless children.

The HHS announcement justifies the changes by using language “recognizing parents as children’s primary teachers” , “decreasing administrative costs,” and “removing regulations,” wording which signals alignment with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 including its emphasis on the family as “the centerpiece of American life.” Project 2025 recommended that HHS eliminate Head Start. Kennedy’s proposal moves Head Start closer to that goal.

WHY IT MATTERS

Head Start has a long and laudable history of serving predominantly low-income children. It is predicated on core insights from the study of child development demonstrating lifelong benefits of integrated exposure to learning, caring relationships, nutrition, and health in the first five years of life.

Longitudinal studies show that people who attended Head Start stay in school longer, are more likely to have jobs and higher incomes, and have better health than similar people who did not have access to the program. In one study, Head Start participants had a 23% lower incidence of poverty and were 27% less likely to receive public assistance. During adolescence and young adulthood, early childhood Head Start participation is associated with reduced rates of obesity, depression, and criminal activity. Remarkably, Head Start has been “quite successful at breaking the cycle of poor outcomes for disadvantaged families,” with intergenerational economic effects for the children of Head Start participants.

From a public health perspective, Head Start is a unique government program that improves long-term health and well-being of children and their families. Despite Secretary Kennedy's assertion of waste, Head Start is cost effective. The Children’s Equity Project estimates a return on investment of $8.70 for each $1.00 spent on Head Start. Head Start should be extended and carefully adapted to meet the shifting needs of low-income children. Instead, Secretary Kennedy is leading a dishonest plan to destroy Head Start, at a time when many low income families are also facing challenges maintaining Medicaid and SNAP benefits under the One Big Beautiful Bill budget.

Public comments on the proposed Head Start rule changes are open until October 6, 2026. Please let your senators and representatives know you support Head Start.