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| - For several months, claims that Project 2025 intends to eliminate the U.S. Head Start program, which provides early childhood education and services to low-income families, have circulated in various media outlets and on social media platforms, including posts by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. "Donald Trump's Project 2025 would eliminate the Department of Education and get rid of Head Start," Harris' account on Facebook wrote.
"Project 2025 cuts the Head Start program," one X user wrote, adding that, "Project 2025 aims to cut pathways to success."
Indeed, the claim circulated on multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram.
They are correct. "Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise," a document outlining Project 2025's goals, explicitly recommends eliminating the Head Start program, so we have rated this claim as true.
What Project 2025 Document Says?
The recommendation to eliminate Head Start has sparked significant criticism, as many view it as essential for supporting low-income families. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) website, Head Start programs support children's growth from birth to age 5 through services centered around early learning and development, health, and family well-being.
The proposal to eliminate Head Start was outlined in the "Mandate for Leadership" chapter on the DHHS, authored by Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation. Specifically, this recommendation appeared in the section about the Office of Head Start (OHS) on page 482, reading:
Eliminate the Head Start program. Head Start, originally established and funded to support low-income families, is fraught with scandal and abuse. With a budget of more than $11 billion, the program should function to protect and educate minors. Sadly, it has done exactly the opposite. In fact, "approximately 1 in 4 grant recipients had incidents in which children were abused, left unsupervised, or released to an unauthorized person between October 2015 and May 2020." [...] Research has demonstrated that federal Head Start centers, which provide preschool care to children from low-income families, have little or no long-term academic value for children. Given its unaddressed crisis of rampant abuse and lack of positive outcomes, this program should be eliminated along with the entire OHS. At the very least, the program's COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements should be rescinded.
The document criticizes Head Start for alleged inefficiencies, safety violations, and a lack of long-term academic benefits for participating children. The paragraph referenced an article from the Heritage Foundation in November 2022, titled, "Over 1,000 Safety Violations Mar Head Start. Children Deserve Better," authored by Madison Marino, senior research associate from the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation.
"Head Start has faced multiple occurrences of financial fraud and child abuse over many decades. And those who attend Head Start do no better in school than similar children who do not, which means Head Start has little or no long-term academic value for children," the article claimed.
The article was originally published by the The Daily Signal, a conservative news website, and was based on an actual, September 2022 review released by the U.S. Office of Inspector General, titled, "ACF [Administration for Children and Families] Should Improve Oversight of Head Start To Better Protect Children's Safety."
The federal review stated that "approximately one in four Head Start grant recipients received an adverse finding from ACF for child abuse, lack of supervision, or unauthorized release between October 2015 and May 2020. These adverse findings encompassed 1,029 individual incidents." It also concluded that the ACF "is not aware of all incidents in which children in the care of a Head Start center are abused, left unsupervised, or released to an unauthorized person, impeding ACF's efforts to protect children's safety."
Project 2025 and Education
This was not the first claim related to education and Project 2025 that we have investigated. For instance, in August 2024, we fact-checked whether Project 2025 proposes that all public high school students should be required to take the military entrance exam (true). We also confirmed Project 2025 has called to shut down the U.S. Department of Education. In September 2024, we looked at claims that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said: "I'm gonna close the Department of Education and move education back to the states" (true).
Trump has publicly distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 document. Instead, he presented Agenda47 as his official set of proposals, which shares some common objectives with Project 2025. The degree of influence Project 2024 will have on his administration is yet to be determined.
For further reading, we recommend our comprehensive article on the topic, "What to Know About Project 2025, the Pro-Trump Plan to Overhaul US Government."
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