OAKLAND, Calif. – Immediate cuts to Oakland’s Head Start program, which helps young children, especially disadvantaged ones, learn, were avoided thanks to funding identified by the City Council Wednesday.
Community members gathered in the morning for a news conference at the Tassafaronga Recreation Center at 971 85th Ave. in Oakland to demand no cuts, no closures, and no layoffs with respect to the city’s program.
City Councilmembers passed a resolution Wednesday afternoon to provide funding for three locations, which were slated for closure Wednesday. The funding will keep the sites open for a year.
“We serve the neediest of the needy in our community,” said Trina Farrish, a Head Start worker and grandparent raising a child with the help of Head Start.
“And now you’re telling us we can no longer do that?” Farrish said before the City Council vote.
The locations that were slated for closure, according to a report to the City Council, were Arroyo Viejo Early Head Start, Tassafaronga Head Start, and Franklin Center Head Start.
All three are in East Oakland, which consists predominantly of people of color.
“We have had enough of disinvestment in our community,” City Councilmember Treva Reid said at the news conference.
She said at the City Council meeting that East Oakland residents want funding restored to them from inequitable investment.
Also at the news conference, City Councilmember Carroll Fife said, “We have evidence that investing in Head Start is a win for everyone.”
Like others at the briefing, she demanded no cuts, closures, and no layoffs at any of the sites slated for closure.
Fife later alleged that only one city councilmember was included in the talks with Oakland’s Human Services Department about the cuts.
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” Fife said. “And we’ve got to figure it out. Because people’s lives are on the line.”
The City Council got an agenda report dated July 20 that said that Head Start sites would be closed and staffing would be affected. The report also said changes in program options were coming.
In June, Oakland’s Head Start program was awarded $12.2 million for five years. That was $5.5 million less than what was requested.
The Unity Council, which partners with the city to provide Head Start, received a $5.8 million grant. Between the city’s and The Unity Council’s funding, the two agencies would serve nearly as many children as the city will this year.
Before the City Council vote Wednesday, the cut of $5.5 million in funding to the city is what prompted the decision to close the three sites, according to a report Tuesday from four city councilmembers and the city’s spokeswoman Karen Boyd.
Closing the three sites would have meant 52 fewer children received Head Start assistance in the future compared with fiscal year 2020-21, the councilmembers report said.
The report said many families may not have a car so closing the sites could make it impossible for parents or guardians to get to work because they would have no child care.
Head Start provides school readiness for children from birth to 5 years old, free early childhood education and resources to low-income families.