FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration of Children and Families is publishing a new final rule on Friday that will save the federal low-income childcare program more than $2 billion.
The final rule, Restoring Flexibility to Support Head Start Program Access, removes the Biden-era mandate for wage equality between Head Start educators and local school districts, which would have taken effect by 2031.
These changes will result in over $2 billion in future cost savings for Head Start programs annually starting in 2031. It will also save an additional 84,000 Head Start Preschool slots for children ages 3 to 5, and 22,000 Early Head Start slots for children under 3.
The move aims to “restore local flexibility to Head Start programs and improve access to quality services,” according to the rule.
The administration posted the proposed rule earlier this year, and public comment closed in June.
“Over time regulation basically added on top of regulation, and it drove up the cost of doing business,” Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families Alex Adams told the Daily Signal in an interview.
“As a result, we’ve seen the number of Head Start slots dropping from a million slots down to 660,000 in the most recent year. Pulling back some of those regulations will allow programs to reinvest those dollars from things that the administration has tried to foist on them into things that will support students, support families,” Adams said.
Adams is rolling back some of the Biden administration’s wage and benefit requirements for Head Start teachers.
“They tried to develop a fee schedule for the education staff that was linked to comparable school districts, so it would have increased the cost, which again would have been borne by having to reduce more more access,” he said. “The Biden administration projected it would have cut more than 100,000 slots nationwide.”
Instead, ACF is letting local Head Start programs set those requirements themselves.
“Our broader point is some of these parameters are best decided by local communities, it might make sense in some communities, and they retain the ability to pay on a rate similar to the local school district, but we’re not requiring it,” he said.
The Biden administration’s reasoning for its role included teacher turnover and the need for staff retention.
“The problem with all of those things that they did, and then the previous rewrite from the Obama administration, is this is a fixed grant program. So every dollar that has to go to one of the things that is required federally have to come from somewhere else,” he said. “So what administration or what programs have done is they just reduce the number of slots available to kids.”
Adams said the government’s default shouldn’t be reducing access for children and families.
“Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said Head Start is a critical program,” he said. “He wants to make it better and brighter, and I would contend that this $2 billion in ongoing annual savings that can be reinvested in the program and saving 100,000 slots is one of the largest final actions to date to make that program better and brighter.”
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
