“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
COURTESY OF KASHKA ORLOW
however. In Gulfport, Miss., where
the median household income was
$38,287 in 2011, Head Start programs face a $500,000 cut. Officials there have tried to lessen the
blow by reducing costs elsewhere.
Bus drivers were fired, as were
cooks and staff. Finally, organizers
reduced the incoming class by 100.
But that’s just shifting the burden to the parents of the next class.
Organizers are increasingly worried
about the additional stress being
placed on already hurting families.
“Child care can cost $540 a
month. And if you are 200 percent
below the poverty line, then you
are going to have a hard time providing that,” said Dr. Barbara Coatney, executive director of the Gulf
Coast Community Action Agency,
which oversees eight Head Start
centers. “Some of the poorest children in Mississippi won’t be able
to get child care through Head
Start because of sequestration.”
uch like in Gulfport,
Head Start officials
across the country
have worked to ameliorate the impact of
sequestration, usually by shifting
funds or working with local schools
to pick up the slack. It hasn’t al-
M
ways worked, as Reynolds and Jacobs can attest. But on occasion
it has helped parents avoid falling
over the proverbial precipice.
Kashka Orlow is one of those
parents. Several years back, she
left her husband in Las Vegas and
brought her two kids to Burlington, Vt., to be closer to family. But
despite having two degrees, she
couldn’t find work.
“I’m a business major. I understand ... there are other candidates
who, I hate to say it, don’t have the
same baggage that I do,” she said
of how her personal story has been
greeted in the labor market.
HUFFINGTON
07.21.13
A local
preschool
put parents
like Kashka
Orlow at ease
by taking on
displaced
children after
sequestration
forced a Head
Start summer
program
to close.
Without
that help,
Orlow says,
“I would be
scrambling.”