On a Monday morning, preschool teacher Sandra Tanjich handed out wooden popsicle sticks to her students. She explained the students will use them to practice making the letter “H.”
“What’s a word that starts with the letter ‘H,’” Tanjich asked her students.
“Hippo!,” exclaimed one student.
This Head Start preschool is in one of three sites in Rochester operated by Families First of Minnesota. There's a fourth in Albert Lea. Combined, they serve about 500 students.
But executive director Kristin Quenzer said because of the federal government shutdown, the federal funding they rely upon to pay teachers, feed the children and keep the lights on — about $10 million this year — is in jeopardy.
“[I’m] definitely losing sleep over this,” she said. “I mean, all of our amazing teachers are paid, all of this is funded through those dollars.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services delivers annual funding to individual Head Start providers in one lump sum, and four programs in Minnesota are due to get their operating grants for the next 12 months on Nov. 1.
Together, those four programs serve about 1,300 students across the state and employ about 240 people. Families First is among them and is facing a huge financial crisis if the government shutdown continues and that big annual federal payment doesn’t arrive.
Quenzer said Families First can tap into some state Head Start funding early — about $800,000. That might be enough money to keep them in business into mid-December. Some internal budget reserves could get them through the holidays. But if the shutdown drags on, Quenzer said she could be forced to layoff teachers and she would have to try to place the children in different preschool programs.
“I don’t even want to think about it, but going into next year we would have to look at shutting down,” she said.
Statewide, Head Start programs serve about 12,500 children, from infants up to 5-year old prekindergartners. Families must meet income requirements to participate. Some of the kids are experiencing homelessness or are in foster care, said Kraig Gratke, executive director of the Minnesota Head Start Association.
He said that even when the shutdown ends, he’s worried that some providers will have already laid off teachers and placed students in other programs. It will be difficult to rehire staff and reenroll kids.
“It’s very scary for us in terms of what if we have to do a hard shutdown, with the loss of kids and the loss of staff,” Gratke said.
Gratke said there’s another concern: SNAP food assistance may be cut off next month, meaning kids may be coming to Head Start classes in the morning hungry.
“Kids will put food in their pockets to take home with them,” said Gratke. “So our discussions have really largely been around, ‘How do we make sure that we've got enough food while they're there?’”
Gratke said another group of Head Start programs in Minnesota will be facing a similar financial bind if the shutdown continues into December, as they are all due to receive their annual operating grants on Dec. 1.
0 Comments