Rural Americans who rely on Head Start worry about its future: 'Without free childcare I couldn't work' [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Sun 28 Sep 2025 13.00 EDT


For almost as long as she’s been a mother, Sara Laughlin has known where she could turn for help in Troy, a western Ohio town 20 miles north of Dayton.

For years, the local Head Start program provided stability and care for her oldest son, and it now does the same for her two younger children, twin boys. Head Start was there for Laughlin and her family through tough transitions, including the end of a long relationship. She credits the free federally funded program, housed in a blue building on the edge of this manufacturing hub of 27,000, for allowing her to keep her job as a massage therapist while raising three kids.

“If we had to pay for childcare, I would not be able to work,” Laughlin said. “There’s no way I could do it.” So, Laughlin said, she was “dumbfounded” when she heard this spring that Head Start was targeted for elimination in an early draft of Donald Trump’s budget proposal.

In small towns and rural areas throughout the country, voters like her were key to both of Trump’s election victories. Laughlin was particularly attracted to his campaign promise to eliminate taxes on tips, which she relies on. She couldn’t conceive why cuts to early childhood programs would be on the table. “Out of all the things in this country that we could get rid of, why do you want to attack our children’s learning?” she said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/28/rural-americans-head-start-childcare