By Chandra Alexandre
For more than 60 years, Head Start has been the gold standard for early education. It is how this country supports its youngest children.
Head Start is built on a simple idea: every child deserves a fair and equal start in school and in life, regardless of background or income. Over six decades, it has become a cornerstone of high-quality early childhood education, providing early learning alongside nutritious meals, dental and medical screenings, developmental support, and other services that help children and their families thrive.
At its heart, Head Start is a national commitment that says yes to the full potential of every child.
Here in Marin County, Community Action Marin brings that commitment to more than 600 children and families each year through 10 early education centers, a home visiting program, and quality support for family child care providers funded with Head Start and state child care dollars. Every child experiences caring and highly skilled teachers, a safe and inviting learning environment, and a range of supports for healthy development. Every parent is supported in their critical role as their child’s first teacher. As a result, children receive a strong foundation and families receive care for their children while they work, go to school, and build their futures.
That commitment is now at risk.
The federal administration has proposed sweeping changes to Head Start’s performance standards, which set the bar for quality programming across the country. Instead of building on the program’s decades of research-backed success and learning, this proposal undermines Head Start’s quality standards, comprehensive services, and accessibility for families by revising or removing nearly every current requirement. These moves to de-regulate the program are framed as increasing flexibility. The real-life impacts tell a different story.
Reducing—and nearly eliminating—the performance standards for a program that has become the benchmark for high-quality early education in this country would take us away from known best practices such as low teacher-to-child ratios in a classroom. Instead of the nation’s gold standard, we’d have a patchwork approach to serving children at the time of the greatest brain development.
There is another concern that is especially important in Marin.
Current eligibility rules account for the extraordinary cost of housing when determining whether a family meets income qualifications for their child to be enrolled in a Head Start classroom. The federal poverty line for a family of four is approximately $32,000 a year. But in Marin County, we know it can take $150,000 or more for that same family merely to make ends meet. Families here can spend 60% or 70% of their income on rent, far beyond what is considered affordable. For those families, Head Start can be the difference between accessing high-quality early education and having no affordable option at all. The proposed changes remove consideration of housing costs for eligibility. In Marin, that means a sizable number of families will lose access to Head Start.
We know the first five years of a child’s life matter tremendously. High-quality early education supports brain development and helps children build the skills, relationships, and confidence they need for school and for life. Revoking that investment is revoking the commitment to the full potential of each child and closing the door on opportunities they would otherwise have had through Head Start.
We must ensure that those doors remain open for every child.
Everyone in our community should care about what happens to Head Start. When children enter kindergarten ready to learn, ready to build relationships, and ready to be part of their community, we all benefit. Access to high-quality early learning for every child benefits working families, schools, employers and builds a stronger community. If the proposed changes are enacted, children in Marin and throughout the country will be stripped of their opportunity for a head start.
We should not lower the bar, nor should we close the door on families who are already struggling to afford life in Marin.
Head Start has always been about saying yes to children and families. For Marin County and the entire country, saying yes to every child is saying yes to our collective future.
Join us! Now is the time to let your voice be heard. Add your name to a sign-on letter today: camarin.org/head-start.
Together, we will show that our shared commitment to Head Start and to the full potential of every child continues.
Public comment on these proposed changes closes on October 6, 2026.