You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Trump Administration Moves to Dismantle Anti-Poverty Head Start Program

HeadlineAug 07, 2026
Image Credit: headstart.gov

The Trump administration has announced plans to overhaul Head Start, the nation’s early education and nutrition program for children living in poverty. The proposed measure would rescind hundreds of federal regulations overseeing Head Start, including mandates to provide assistance for parents of children with disabilities. Advocates warn the move will completely gut the program, which was first enacted over 60 years ago under the Health and Human Services Department — now run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Annually, Head Start serves more than 700,000 children from birth to age 5.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top