Trumbull Head Start Hopes to Avoid Sequestration Cuts
WARREN, Ohio – Trumbull County’s Head Start program would likely have to reduce staff and the number of students it serves if Congress is unable to stave off another round of budget cuts due to sequestration, says the president and CEO of Trumbull Community Action program.
Last week the agency, known as TCAP, was awarded $4.5 million for the fiscal year that began Nov. 1 by the federal government for the countywide program, which operates eight Head Start centers throughout the county.
Head Start is a preschool program that enables economically disadvantaged children to “start off on a level playing field with other children when they get to kindergarten,” said Jeanne Wall, director of the county Head Start program. The program provides not only academic assistance to preschool age children but socialization assistance, health care assistance, transportation and, in some cases, meals.
“Some families really don’t have a lot of needs other families may have, and we have people that come to us who are homeless,” Wall said.
Head Start is housed in the Trumbull Community Action Program’s Palmyra Road building, the former West Junior High School, and has 669 children enrolled this year.
One of the classrooms is dedicated to boosting science and math skills. Students come to the classroom twice a week for 35 minutes per session. The program recently received a $5,000 grant from PNC Bank, which math/science coordinator Todd Schnulo hopes to use for additional equipment and a trip to the Oh Wow! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science and Technology.
“Our goal is to get them, when they go to public school, with more knowledge about different math and science subjects,” he said.
The Trumbull Head Start program absorbed a $250,000 cut in funding last year due to the federal sequestration program, which mandated across-the-board cuts in federal spending programs due to the 2011 budget agreement. Should Congress and the White House not come to an agreement to stave off the next round of sequestration cuts, due to take effect in January, Trumbull’s Head Start program will take another $100,000 hit, said James Abicht, president and CEO of the Trumbull Community Action Program.
“We did not cut the number of children that we have this year. Next year it will be necessary to do that if the sequestration goes through,” he said. The program compensated for the prior round of cuts by starting school a week later and replacing retiring staff with people learning less money. “But that’s about all the cuts we can do like that,” Abicht remarked. Further cuts will likely require getting rid of one classroom teacher, an assistant teacher, a family advocate, a bus drive and probably an administrator.
Head Start is “a wonderful program,” one of the original War on Poverty programs, Abicht noted. “It’s been proven to be effective even though the naysayers constantly try to say it’s not effective,” he asserted.
“Unfortunately, we’re being governed by a bunch of bumper sticker slogans right now and that’s no way to be thoughtful about the future of the United States,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13 Ohio, who toured TCAP Monday. “We’ve got to get away from it sooner rather than later.”
The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have a Dec. 13 deadline to put together a budget deal that would avoid the sequestration cuts, Ryan said. A second round of sequestration will mean “deeper and deeper cuts across the board that aren’t even evaluated on their merits,” he complained.
“There may be a program that is a dog, that doesn’t work. Instead of eliminating that entire program, you cut that program by 10% and a good program by 10% so it’s not a very thoughtful process,” he continued.
Ryan is lobbying Lockheed Martin, which is considering closing its Akron facility because of sequestration cuts in defense spending, on behalf of employees there. Not only would the closing mean the loss of 500 jobs but elimination of a program that is helpful for addressing natural disasters, identifying illegal immigrants crossing the border and spotting drug deals, he said. Tethered blimps are manufactured at the plant, among other activities taking place there.
“That specific program can address some of the more homeland security type issues but this program’s on the chopping block just like another defense program that maybe doesn’t work much at all or is outdated,” Ryan said.
“This thoughtlessness is something I’m very much concerned about because we’re not setting the stage for the next decade in our country. We’re acting like this is a very simple problem that can be solved with indiscriminate cuts across the board and we’ve got to get away from that mentality.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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