Terri Sabol: The Dangers of Deregulating Head Start
A new federal proposal to loosen rules governing Head Start, the nation’s early childhood education program, will gut the program rather than streamline it, Northwestern University professor Terri Sabol argued in the Chicago Tribune.
Sabol, an early childhood researcher at the School of Education and Social Policy and faculty co-director of the Early Childhood Research Alliance of Chicago (EC*REACH), agrees that the program could use some improvements.
But the promised $2 billion in savings “largely come on the backs of childcare workers, who are already among the lowest-paid professionals out there, earning often only $15 per hour,” Sabol wrote. And the 236,000 new Head Start slots will be created by loosening class-size and staff ratios to unsafe levels (e.g., up to 14 three-year-olds per teacher in Mississippi) and eliminating family-engagement requirements.
This would strip away the whole-family, anti-poverty services that research—including Sabol’s— shows drive Head Start's long-term benefits for both children and parents.
“Some requirements are burdensome. Some performance standards deserve a fresh look. But the proposed rule doesn’t trim red tape — it strips out the pieces that make Head Start work,” she wrote.
“It reduces math and literacy instruction requirements. It eliminates required medical and dental screenings. It removes Spanish instruction for English language learners. Public comment on the proposed rules is telling. What remains will be subpar, and likely unsafe, daycare for working, low-income families.
The $2 billion in short-term savings will be paid back, with interest, over decades in lost human potential,” Sabol warned. “Six decades of research show that strong investment in young children produces some of the highest returns in public policy.”
About Terri: A developmental psychologist and former first grade teacher in Chicago Public Schools, Sabol looks at how classrooms, families, and neighborhoods influence childhood development. Her research focuses on two key policy areas: assessing and improving early childhood education; and strengthening parents’ education, employment, and income to also benefit the child, which is known as the two-generation approach.
- Read her full piece.
- Read the proposed rule and public comments. The comment period closes Oct. 6, 2026.
- Read more about Terri Sabol.