Loss Of $4 Million For Head Start Program Is Unsettling For Parents

DETROIT (WWJ) - The missed application deadline for the funding of the Head Start program for Detroiters has parents speaking out.

Beverly Spears spoke with WWJ City Beat Reporter Vickie Thomas outside of Greenfield Union Elementary and Middle School.

"I think it wasn't right, because I got a baby got to go to Head Start," she said. "She can't go because they said they didn't have enough money, and I would like for her to go to."

Her message to DPS Emergency Manager Jack Martin ... "I would like for him to get his job done - do the work."

According to the Free Press the funding supported about 900 students in 56 classrooms in 2013-14, it's a significant blow and points to incompetency in the financially troubled district, said Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson.

Cheryl Henry has two children ages four and six and is unsettled by the news that Head Start will not be a part of the school program next year:

"Oh, wow, yeah, what would I do? Actually, I'd just teach them at home I guess ... or find something else," Henry said.

Detroit Public Schools now hope to use Great Start Readiness and Title - 1  funding to cover gap.

On Tuesday it was discovered that DPS administrators had missed a crucial deadline for the funding of the Head Start losing on a securing $4 million toward the program.

Head Start is a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children ages birth to 5 from low-income families by enhancing their cognitive, social and emotional development.