Many families in the Northland struggle to find child care, and now several facilities are in danger of closing. 

Head Start is a nationwide program serving children of low-income families across all corners of the country. In 2023 alone, 778,420 were enrolled in the program. 

Family Forum is a Head Start and Early Head Start nonprofit covering Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas, Iron, and Price Counties. Executive Director Jeanne Myer says funding has always been difficult. 

“Head Start has survived since 1965, right in those rundown places we couldn’t afford. And so year after year we keep using funding, and when the COLAs, the cost of living adjustments, are not coming our way and the rising costs of inflation, we find ourselves in some challenging situations where funding is just crucial,” said Myer. 

Marilyn Blomquist has been at the Family Forum Center in Superior for over two-thirds of the program’s 60-year history. Blomquist started as a parent volunteer, then became a bus driver, before becoming a teacher assistant. She says there have been many changes and improvements to education, but the program was always able to make ends meet. 

“We always worry about having enough funding,” said Blomquist. “During the Reaganomics years, funding was tight. We were buying our own pencils and paper and whatnot. But the basic needs of the building were being met, and salaries were being paid, and I felt that services were being provided.”

Now, the future of the program is in jeopardy. 

“Since January of this year, I have seen, you know, so many changes that affect low-income families and moderate-income families, even my own family. It’s just overwhelming. It’s bewildering,” said Blomquist. 

Changes began at the state level with the Wisconsin legislature not including Child Care Counts funding in its biennial budget. According to a study done by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Family, around a quarter of child care facilities in the state are likely to close because of this loss in state funding. Family Forum has been using Child Care Counts as supplemental funding.

“We work very hard to provide a quality wage for our staff, and it’s one of those areas where we need additional funding in order to keep raising our staff wages. And so that supplemental CC counts was a way to do that,” explained Myer. “At one point, each staff member was able to receive $500. And year after year, now, for the last two years, it’s been dwindling. So now it’s at about $100 per person, and then that’s going to be completely going away. We were also able to use that to just kind of buy some new toys and the equipment.”

Myer and several Family Forum parents protested in Madison on April 16th, urging lawmakers to reconsider their decision before Child Care Counts funding runs out at the end of June. 

RELATED: Parents protest elimination of Child Care Counts Program

Most of Head Start’s funding is from the federal government, and now that is also at risk. 

“We’ll be celebrating 60 years here come June, and so we know that Washington, we know in Washington that they know we’re a solid quality program and that we are needed. It’s very disheartening to see all the disruption that things are causing through the current administration right now,” said Myer. “I think nationwide, I mean, they’re looking to see where there’s maybe excess or wasted funding that is out there. I think the hard part about that, though, is the speed that they are doing it at, you know, not realizing the domino effects.” 

Five out of ten regional Head Start centers have been eliminated, effective April 1. This includes Region 5 in Chicago, which oversees Family Forum’s facilities. 

“We knew it on March thirty first. So we’ve been in the dark with this transition. I don’t even believe that the federal staff people in Chicago knew as well. So I think they, too, were blindsided by this,” said Myer. “Those are all of our federal employees. So that’s my fiscal person up there. That’s my program specialist. That’s my grantee specialist. Those are the ones that we call and say we need support. I need funding. I need to withdraw money. I need waivers passed. All of that communication is now gone, and this is- it’s a hardship on us.”

Direct impacts are already being felt. Family Forum receives the first half of its funding on December 1 and the remaining in early April each year.

“It is April, and I have no word that I will receive my second half of funding,” said Myer. 

More recently, USA Today reported that Head Start’s elimination will be in the Trump administration’s upcoming budget proposal. 

“We are in the 2025 plan of the Trump administration, and Head Start is mentioned in there,” said Myer. 

Blomquist is saddened by the thought of Head Start losing funding. 

“For me, it’s very hard to believe if they haven’t come in and spent time in a Head Start classroom, why they would think that we are not doing a fantastic job.”

If the program were to end, those involved say there could be a devastating ripple effect nationwide, including in the five counties Family Forum serves in northern Wisconsin. 

Vicky Petrovich is the Center Manager at one of the locations in Superior, a location with 55 children enrolled. 

“This program is very important to our community because we serve at-risk families, homeless families, single parents, all sorts,” said Petrovich. “Our program is all about serving the children and the families and helping them get the best preschool experience that they can. So if our program closes, most of our families wouldn’t be able to afford to take their child to a childcare facility because all of our programs are free.”

Haley Powell knows the importance of the program, both as an employee and as the mother of a 20-month-old. 

“It is life-changing,” said Powell. “How beneficial it is to have somebody who isn’t biased, who doesn’t know your whole life story, and they’re just in it for you. So like I did prenatal with a home visitor, even though I knew all about prenatal care, right? Because I would teach it to other young parents. It was just nice having that person.”

Powell says that Head Start has helped her know what resources are in the community and figure out that her son is speech-delayed. 

“A lot of families, unless you’re going in for routine health care or in a good connection with a provider, you wouldn’t know those things in science to look for unless you want to, you know, use Google or something along those lines,” explained Powell. 

Childhood development is prioritized in the Head Start program, with kids learning a variety of social-emotional skills from teachers like Becka Tallman. 

“We are showing them how it’s okay to have emotions and giving them different techniques like breathing. We have a safe place in our classroom where they can go and take a moment, and then come back and join the classroom. We’re teaching them self-help skills like how to get dressed, going outside, whether it’s putting on their boots or snow pants,” said Tallman. “When they come to school, they eat breakfast with us, and they clean up their dishes. They are, you know, we’re brushing their teeth. They’re doing all of that stuff. They’re obtaining those skills, so they have them down the line.”

Tallman is a third-generation Head Start teacher, following in her mom and grandma’s footsteps. The program takes a holistic approach, helping not only kids but also parents who need advice or extra help. 

“I feel like Head Start is so important for our whole community because it not only gives us an outlet for kids to go to, but it also gives parents, like, as a teacher now, I’m helping parents, you know, make medical appointments, make dental appointments,” said Tallman. “To see it being almost lost in our community is such a downfall. And we, as teachers here, have become such a big family, and it’s going to be a big hardship if we do. And I’m hoping we can get legislators and everything to save Head Start.” 

Powell says she’s doing everything she can to change minds in Washington. She has been making calls every day after work to advocate for the program. 

“I would never put a cost on it. There is- it’s priceless. The services that are provided in these programs across our country. It is vital for these to exist,” emphasized Powell. “There’s no price on that. Every child deserves to feel loved, and I feel that that’s what Head Start does. It makes everybody feel that there’s somebody.”

The future of Head Start remains uncertain, but the fight continues to defend the program and the kids who need it. 

“I’m not going anywhere. Like that’s just what we need, people like that. We can’t be afraid. We can’t turn a blind eye either. You know, we need to advocate. We need to say what, you know, has to be said. And sometimes that’s hard, but I know that these kids who don’t have a voice- we’re their voice,” said Powell. “We can’t let what’s going on in our outside world, which is out of our control, impact how we care for children.”

On Monday night, the ACLU announced a lawsuit filed alongside parent advocacy groups and a coalition of Head Start providers. Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the dismantling of Head Start as unlawful. In the meantime, Family Forum still has no word on when they will receive the second half of their annual funding.