Friday, August 7: Feds propose gutting Head Start, building better Wisconsin politics, sending people with disabilities away from home, a wheelchair ride with a purpose, absentee ballots and people with disabilities, Crowley campaigns in Waukesha
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It demonstrates to me a fundamental misunderstanding of what it takes to operate a classroom with small children.”
– Jennie Mauer, Wisconsin Head Start Association executive director, on the Trump administration’s move to eliminate standards in the early education program for children living in poverty
Children at a Sun Prairie Head Start center operated by Reach Dane gather in a circle with their teachers for a story. (Photo courtesy of Reach Dane)
Wisconsin providers and childcare experts say that a proposed federal rule that rewrites or eliminates many regulations for Head Start would roll back standards that have contributed to the success of Head Start children in later school years. Erik Gunn reports on advocates’ concerns, while Carolyn Jones of CalMatters reports on the federal rule change, details of which the Trump administration has yet to specify.
Against the backdrop of Wisconsin’s contentious primary battle for governor, Editor Ruth Conniff writes in a commentary about people who are asking deeper questions about how to build political power. Immigrant rights’ organizers aim to drive the voter participation rate higher, an especially poignant objective in an election year in which Wisconsin is seeing the nation’s vicious, authoritarian regime up close.
Disability advocates around the country are fighting a surge of federal and state actions that have eroded protections meant to keep people with disabilities living and working in their communities, rather than in institutions, reports Anna Claire Vollers of Stateline. Erik Gunn reports on a Wisconsin advocate’s wheelchair ride across the state to draw attention to Medicaid cuts as well as the Trump administration’s decision to pull back from requiring states to provide care at home for people with disabilities.
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More from Washington:
ICYMI
Governors and lawmakers say they’re getting serious about states’ rights | Kevin Hardy, Stateline
Courts rule Trump administration can’t cancel $22B in climate grants | Nada Hassanein, Stateline
Hundreds of people came to the Capitol on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, to testify against the new voting maps drawn by Republican legislative leaders, which advocates characterized as 'gerrymandering 2.0.' (Wisconsin Examiner photo)
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