Washington, D.C. – Anat Weisenfreund, Director of Head Start and Early Learning Programs at Community Action Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts, will be testifying at a US Senate Committee on the economic and financial impacts of the federal debt limit crisis. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Policy, Chaired by Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, hosts a hearing on March 7, 2023 at 2:30pm on The Federal Debt Limit and its Economic and Financial Consequences. Anat will be speaking to the impacts of Head Start in her community and across the country on the children and families they serve as well as the workforce they employ. Anat is also the President of the Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health and has dedicated her professional career to serving the youngest children and families, in various clinical and leadership roles, for the past 30 years. Her testimony addresses immense benefits of Head Start, current challenges, as well as the significant impact a cut in funding would have.

            Anat testifies that, “For nearly six decades, Head Start has provided critical services for pregnant women, infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their families in communities across our country, prioritizing those with the lowest incomes and living in the most difficult circumstances. It is well known that poverty, in its multiple forms, puts the youngest children and their families at risk. The discoveries of brain and developmental science leave no doubt: our experiences in the first five years of life impact our entire lives. Head Start is grounded in this knowledge and our work supports the needs of children, their families, and their earliest relationships……. The long-term positive impact of Head Start for children, families and future generations is well documented.”

            Anat highlights that the workforce crisis amplifies Head Start’s chronic underfunding. She testifies, “as a direct result of decades of insufficient funding, recruiting, and retaining qualified professionals is a chronic challenge. The last years of the pandemic, coupled with rising inflation, have made a bad situation worse… In my career, I have never experienced a situation more severe than the workforce crisis we are facing now. Even modest reductions in funding would be devastating to those who rely on Head Start, setting back measurable, national gains in school readiness and undercutting communities just beginning to rebound from the pandemic.”

            The Head Start and childcare workforce crisis directly and indirectly impacts the most vulnerable families, who Head Start is designed to serve. This coupled with the pandemic and rising inflation have exacerbated the already concerning shortage. Across the nation, staff are leaving their positions for higher paying and less demanding opportunities. The future of Head Start is also in jeopardy while low salaries and rising inflation continue to deter talented early childhood educators and professionals from entering the field. Watch Anat highlight these immediate crises and share the need for increased funding in front of the US Senate Committee on Banking and read her testimony here: https://www.banking.senate.gov/hearings/the-federal-debt-limit-and-its-economic-and-financial-consequences