“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
psyche of the people who have
the power to turn it around.”
Advocates for Head Start long
ago stopped telling themselves
that once the pain set in, presequestration order would be
restored. In its place, there is anguish and disbelief that Congress
was able to move so quickly, and
without apparent regret.
“I used to have what I thought
I needed to be comfortable,” said
Orlow, the Burlington mother. “It’s
when the rug gets pulled out from
under you that you realize, ‘Oh
wow, without programs like this I
probably still would be lost.’”
A single mom, dependent on
government programs she never
thought she would need, Orlow
UPDATE
has seen life grow more challenging since she left her husband in
Las Vegas. “I wish that Congress
would just walk a little bit in the
shoes of somebody who
that happened to.”
Sam Stein is senior politics editor
at The Huffington Post.
Hours after this story was published on the web, Rhonda Reynolds
received a call from officials at the local public school informing her
that they could take her daughter, Bella, for the next academic year.
They would be taking the other 13 kids dropped from Bella’s Head
Start program as well, Reynolds told HuffPost.
Those Pratt parents hoping to get their children into Head Start
next year will still face closed doors, however, unless they can find
the private revenue streams to keep the local program open. And that
remains a daunting task.
“It was kind of hard to find someone who would guarantee two
hundred and fifty big ones every year,” Reynolds said of her brief efforts to locate a Head Start benefactor.
HUFFINGTON
07.21.13
HuffPost
reporter
Zach Carter
discusses the
real effects
of these cuts.
Tap here
for the full
interview
on HuffPost
Live.