To the editor:
On Friday, April 11, the national news outlet USA Today reported that President Trump’s highly anticipated 2025 federal budget will propose eliminating two critical programs for low-income families and those living on a fixed budget: Head Start and LIHEAP home heating assistance. These measures would be in alignment with the Project 2025 blueprint, which was released prior to the election and is being enacted with surgical precision and efficiency by this administration.
I cannot say this strongly enough: Eliminating Head Start and home heating assistance would be catastrophic for Greater Lynn’s families, senior citizens, and economy.
LEO Inc. has proudly held the federal contracts for both Head Start and LIHEAP since 1965. Let me give you a quick overview of how these two programs impact our quality of life and act as economic drivers for the community.
Head Start and Early Head Start: Over the past 60 years, LEO Head Start has prepared an estimated 15,000 preschoolers for kindergarten and beyond, providing high-quality, reliable early education and care to children from birth to age five. Last month, we opened our expanded LEO Inc. Early Education Center on Broad Street, a state-of-the-art campus for 270 preschoolers and their families. At our Stepping Stones Early Education Center, LEO works with 130 infants and toddlers, as well as pregnant women. LEO works with 450-500 children annually, 25-30% of the age-eligible children in Lynn.
Children who attend Head Start commonly face the steep challenges of deep poverty, placement in foster care, homelessness, and living in a single-parent household. Head Start helps families navigate beyond these challenges, and sets children up with learning strategies that will benefit them throughout their lives. Research shows Head Start children are more likely to graduate from high school, continue on to a post-secondary program, and rise out of poverty.
Head Start uses a highly effective data-driven curriculum that accommodates the individual needs of each child and family — a two-generation approach to school readiness with frequent touch-points and assessments to ensure continuous improvement towards learning benchmarks, physical and behavioral health, and family goals that promote stability and community engagement. At LEO, we have further honed this model to meet the specific needs of our community. Intentional and proactive, LEO is continuously measuring our effectiveness and progress to mitigate a range of developmental challenges before children transition to elementary education.
Parents in LEO’s program are often working one or more jobs, employment that would be put at risk without the option for reliable and accessible care for their children. LEO employs more than 100 trained and skilled early educators, clinicians, and support staff; one-quarter of our staff first came to LEO as Head Start parents. LEO’s small kitchen staff serves upwards of 85,000 nutritious meals and snacks to our children each year. Case managers ensure that our children have access to medical and dental homes and receive behavioral health and early intervention when necessary. As adults, Head Start alumni are less likely to smoke or experience chronic health conditions.
At LEO, we firmly believe that Head Start is a proven solution, fiscally responsible and pro-workforce, that improves child and family outcomes, reduces dependency, and stimulates the local economy.
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP): LIHEAP coordinates utility assistance for qualifying low-income households from November through April, helping to support a portion of an individual’s oil bill. Across the board, 75% of the households working with LEO include a member who is elderly, disabled, and/or a child under the age of five — households that are most vulnerable to the chaotic swings of the economy. Last heating season, LEO assisted 7,500+ people through LIHEAP. More than 50 vendors deliver oil to LIHEAP clients, benefitting local small businesses. Local first responders praise LIHEAP for reducing the number of house fires started by dangerous space heaters or individuals who resort to using their ovens to heat their homes.
Eliminating LIHEAP will increase health risks for the elderly, disabled, young children, and low-income working families. It will force households to make unthinkable choices between food, medication, or heating their homes.
Eliminating Head Start will remove the structure that ensures young children are healthy and ready to learn when they enter kindergarten. It will remove the only viable child care that hundreds of parents rely on to keep their jobs.
Eliminating both these programs will cut 140 competitively paying jobs from our community.
Head Start and LIHEAP are CRITICAL supports for the local economy and quality of life in Greater Lynn, worthy of broad bi-partisan support. Now is the time for the public to weigh in on how important it is to retain and fully fund these programs. Lynn’s elected delegation in Congress has unwavering support for these programs, but they need to hear that you consider Head Start and LIHEAP worth fighting for in Washington DC. I urge every family, senior citizen, and business owner to pick up the phone or go to the “Contact” page for Senator Edward Markey (617-565-8519; www.markey.senate.gov/contact/share-your-opinion), Congressman Seth Moulton (978-531-1669), and Senator Elizabeth Warren (617-565-3170; www.warren.senate.gov/contact/shareyouropinion) and make your voice heard.
Birgitta S. Damon
CEO, LEO Inc.
