Help save Head Start
 

Hi everyone!

I hope this is ok to post. This is a copy of an email I received from the Assistant Director of the Head Start I work for. Without our funding, we won't be able to continue to help families find jobs, find housing, give them independence and give their children a head start in learning.

Link to email your reps: National Head Start Association : Take Action and Contact Congress | National Head Start Association

Aside from the people we help, people like me might be out of a job. Please help!

Oh no - is this the fairly new job you got recently, that you really love? If so, I'm so sorry! You sound so passionate about it.

I am here at my pc thinking of all the political reply I could make. Like you said when the cuts are abstract that's great... but now it is hitting all of us. I am in education also, in Florida it is awful. I am at the end of my career and I feel to old to start over but the carrot dangled in front of me for 24 years is now gone. I feel bad for the future of our country -- our children.

I hope enough people convince politicians the importance of education, from the beginning (your program) to all k - 12 programs!!

I wish you luck

Yes it is! It's more than just education, there is so much to this program. Our goal is to help people find whatever resources they need to get out of that bad situation. That seemed to be the goal of the past 6 months. If there is a homeless family, we help them find the resources to find stability for the children and parents. It's not just, let's teach the children their ABC's, but give them an overall better starting point in life.

How awful. I just clicked to email my rep. It only took about 30 seconds to do it. More people need to get involved. What's sad is that I'm only the 65th person to email my state representatives.

646th from CA! I didn't want to email this from work.

I'm sorry to say that it's going to get worse before it gets any better. I think a fiscal day of reckoning has come to this country. As painful as it may be, it's necessary and way overdue.

I've been watching the debt clock for years and wondered when this day would come. To put it into perspective, this year the U.S. is set to spend $500,000,000,000 on interest alone on the national debt. By 2019, it's projected that we'll be spending $700 billion on interest...yes, just interest, on the debt. This works out to over $2,000 for every man, woman and child per year in interest alone and, as we all know, not every single person pays taxes so what does that really amount to for those that do? And, this does nothing to lower the debt in any way and we have no hope of lowering it so long as we run an annual deficit. What does that leave for actually running the country?

Demographics shows that, as the baby boomers retire, government expenses will go up to pay the benefits to those that have contributed for many years to the system. That, coupled with a crushing debt, makes me wonder if there is a solution that won't hit us all hard.

I hope that Head Start, and all those facing budget cuts, can find some way to cope in the midst of all this. Fact is, we've collectively spent all we have, maxed out the country's credit card, raided the kids' piggy banks and pawned Grandma's silverware. This country has got to learn to live within its means. It hurts now and it's gonna hurt more soon. That's the truth. The most we can hope for is that our elected officials quit wasting money and can find a sense of priorities to guide us through what, in a best case scenario, is going to be a rough ride.

I'm sorry your job is at stake, but I'm not for Head Start at all. I worked as a teacher at one in my town. It was the worst teaching experience ever. Many of the families don't need the services. I know for a fact that they know exactly how to cheat the system...and my tax dollars pay for them and so do yours and everyone else's. The people who really need it can't get it because they don't lie or cheat.

I understand what you are saying, I have seen it with food stamps, free lunches and lots of other services. It is really bad in Miami. BUT we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater!! The concept of the program is great, maybe instead of cutting programs there should be a way to really look at corruption and waist.. that would save billions!! Just today I heard on the radio about inmates cheating irs, look at medicare fraud in Miami... the list goes on and on....

op--- I hope you win this battle.. but I hope we find a way to spend wisely

I really don't want this thread to turn into a political debate or whatnot. If you don't believe in supporting head start, that is fine. But those that do, and were not aware that we may lose our funding, and some of us will lose our livelihood, then please by all means, contact your reps.

I am not trying to persuade anyone to do anything.