New York\u2019s top Senate Democrat is speaking out and calling on members of his chamber to stand up to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s over efforts to overhaul the early childhood program Head Start.<\/p>\n
Early reports say the administration is planning to \u201cgut its quality standards and replace it with regulations that would leave most of the specifics up to state and local law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single senator who cares about Head Start needs to stand up to this effort that undercuts our children, particularly the most vulnerable,\u201d said U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer.<\/p>\n
Schumer made the plea while standing on the Senate floor Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Since its founding in the 1960s, Head Start has largely had bipartisan support.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump will soon announce plans to gut Head Start without any thought of how it will hurt hundreds of thousands of children,\u201d said Schumer.<\/p>\n
Head Start was established to help fight poverty and as Nora Moran, the director of policy and advocacy for the United Neighborhood Houses says, it\u2019s long been the \u201cgold standard\u201d for early childhood development and learning.<\/p>\n
The United Neighborhood Houses is a membership organization of New York settlement houses which have hundred-plus year-old community centers that work throughout the state of New York to establish economic advancement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of them are large Head Start providers and were some of the earliest Head Start providers in New York and have believed in this model for many years,\u201d said Moran.<\/p>\n
In the state of New York, just over 50,000 children are enrolled in Head Start. That number ballons to nearly 716,000 nationwide. This is according to HeadStart.gov.<\/a><\/p>\n According to published reports, the Trump administration is considering a full overhaul of the program which is currently run through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. <\/p>\n \u201cHead Start is a little bit of a different model than some other childcare programs in that the federal government works directly with providers and states across the country,\u201d said Moran.<\/p>\n