JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
Reynolds pulled up to her onestory home. Minutes later, April
and Misty arrived. They declined
a drink of water. April went to use
the bathroom while Misty took a
seat on one of the two living room
couches. Reynolds nervously sat on
the other.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Is it bad?”
“They did away with the Head
Start program,” Misty replied, her
head bent low.
April came out of the bathroom
and sat next to Misty. For the next
20 minutes, the three of them cried.
In all, 14 children in Pratt, a town
with a population just under 7,000,
were dropped from Head Start, the
federally funded education program
for lower-income families. Reynolds’ 4-year-old daughter, Bella,
who had learned numbers and
words, manners and social skills
during her time in the program this
past year, was among them — another casualty of the budget cuts
brought about by sequestration.
April and Misty had wanted to
deliver the news in person to the
parents, worried that they would
overhear some mangled version
of events. Head Start centers in
nearby Kingman and Stafford
counties had been closed as well,
so word was bound to get out.
Only late in their talk with Reynolds did they reveal that their
slots had also been eliminated.
“What about your jobs?”
Reynolds asked.
“Well,” they replied, “we don’t
have jobs now either.”
Sequestration was meant to hurt
HUFFINGTON
07.21.13
In addition
to providing
around
960,000
children from
lower-income
families
with early
education,
Head Start
also supplies
each child
with two hot
meals a day.