Proposed Head Start funding cuts could hurt Michigan's neediest children

Head Start program on the chopping block amid proposed funding cuts

Fears of the Trump administration cutting funding for education programming known as Head Start could devastate education opportunities for the country's neediest children.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Those part of Metro Detroit's Head Start programs are concerned the federally-funded initiative may be on the chopping block of the Trump Administration.

Advocates say if Congress approves the cuts, learning will be in jeopardy for thousands of kids around the U.S. and in Michigan.

Local perspective:

Ask Kecia Rorie what she thinks, and she'll invite you into her background growing up: Head Start was key to her upbringing.

She was one of the first members of her family to go to college and she credits the federally-funded program with getting there.

*My sisters didn’t go to Head Start and so their future was very different than my was," she said.

These days, Rorie is the early childhood education director for Starfish Family Services, an organization that operates 14 Head Start Centers around Metro Detroit.

Lidi Arementa-Keys is another who found help in the program, using it to help prepare her 17-month-old daughter who was born with down syndrome. Doing so allowed her to keep her job while her husband got his GED.

"She was able to get in and as a result I think her possibilities are limitless," she said of her daughter.

Lidi Arementa-Keys and her 17-month-old daughter have benefited from education programming now threatened by the Trump administration.

Big picture view:

According to sweeping budget cuts proposed by the Trump Administration, the early education program would lose its federal funding, impacting more than half a million children.

Those who benefit from the program are among the nation's neediest kids who come from low-income background.

While Congress doesn't always follow the wishes of the president, Donald Trump has made it no secret he wants to overhaul the country's education system.

However, cutting funding would hurt both private and public schools that offer the program to children around the U.S. It would also impact families that can't take a day off of work and rely on Head Start for child care.