A new Axios report reveals that over 12,000 Virginia children could lose funding for Head Start, which provides child care, health care, and nutrition assistance. As Axios highlights, many of these families who receive support live in “child care deserts” – or places without any other child care options. The report comes a week after the Washington Post reported Donald Trump’s budget proposal to eliminate the program.

“As a kid, I benefited from Head Start — I know how much it matters. Donald Trump’s proposal to eliminate Head Start is not just reckless — it’s cruel,” said DPVA Chairman Lamont Bagby. “Stripping away access to child care, health care, and nutrition assistance would devastate families and deepen the child care crisis across our Commonwealth. The stakes couldn’t be clearer: we need to elect Abigail Spanberger and Democrats up and down the ballot this November to oppose these dangerous cuts and ensure every Virginia child and family has the opportunity to succeed. We are committed to fighting for working families, not turning our backs on them.”

Axios: Thousands of Virginia kids may lose care with Head Start cuts

• “Thousands of Virginia children could lose funding for Head Start, the decades-old federal program that provides child care, nutrition assistance and other services to the nation's poorest families.”
• “Driving the news: The Trump administration called for the program's elimination in a draft budget plan first obtained last week by the Washington Post.”
• “Why it matters: Shuttering the program would be ‘catastrophic,’ says Casey Peeks, senior director of early childhood policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, Axios' Emily Peck reports.”
• “The big picture: There will be ripple effects for other families if child care providers lose access to this funding — straining a nationwide system already struggling with waitlists and high costs.”
• “Zoom in: 47% of Virginians lived in ‘child care deserts’ as of 2019, CAP found.”
• “Zoom out: 46% of Head Start funding goes to rural areas, often in places without any other child care options, according to federal data from the 2023-2024 school year CAP analyzed.”
• “By the numbers: Virginia's 9th Congressional District, which encompasses most of southwest Virginia, had the most Head Start slots at 2,000, with another 1,600 in the 7th (which includes Culpeper, Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg and some of Prince William County), per CAP's analysis.”###