Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego Reacts to Trump/Kennedy Jr. Proposed Gutting of Head Start Standards

In Phoenix, the Head Start-Preschool Program served 2710 children from some of the city’s poorest families in the 2024/25 school year.

2566 families were supported.

284 of the children were special needs.

52 were foster kids.

42 had suffered through homelessness.

In addition to providing quality preschool options for Phoenix’s poorest families, the Head Start Program in the nation’s fifth-largest city also excels in providing health services, including dental services for the children who enroll.

Attacking Head Start, a successful educational Great Society-War on Poverty program signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, has been a Project 2025 goal of the Trump regime since his return to power, be it delaying funding to school facilities or trying to reduce funding, or most recently aiming to reshape its successful standards to fit the goals of the reactionary and anti-science MAGA and MAHA movements.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, along with other state attorneys general and pro-education organizations, has successfully sued to restore Head Start funding.

They are currently suing to stop the gutting of the standards.

Reacting to what the Trump regime is doing to some of the most vulnerable children in Phoenix, Mayor Kate Gallego issued a statement to Blog of Arizona, offering:

“The proposal to gut Head Start is shameful and would disrupt access to education, health, and nutrition for thousands of kids in Phoenix. I urge the administration to work with communities on real solutions that address education and affordability.”