Half of Wisconsin Head Start programs can’t access needed funds after federal freeze

One week after the Trump administration ordered a pause on federal grants and loans, many Head Start programs in Wisconsin are still unable to access needed funds and are facing uncertainty about whether they can stay open.

While the White House publicly rescinded the memo announcing the freeze, nonprofit organizations around the state are reporting they remain locked out of the payment systems that they use to pay staff and keep operations running.

“I’m hearing from people all across the country and here in Wisconsin that they’re still impacted by the freeze,” Shawn Phetteplace told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “There’s a lot of confusion about this right now, but if you talk to Head Starts, if you talk to child care providers … they’re still frozen out, and they can’t access the funds.”

Phetteplace is the national campaigns manager for Main Street Alliance, one of the organizations that jointly filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration claiming that the funding freeze violates the Impoundment Control Act and is unconstitutional because Congress holds the power of the purse.

But while the legal battles play out in court, organizations that rely on federal funding remain in limbo. Head Start, which supports children up to five years old from low-income families, has approximately 4,500 employees in Wisconsin.

Jen Bailey, board president of the Wisconsin Head Start Association, said that as of Friday, about half of the Head Start programs in the state were still unable to access funding.

That includes Child and Family Centers of Excellence in Waukesha, which closed its doors last week after the freeze was announced. Tim Nolan, who runs the program, told “Wisconsin Today” he received a notice from the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, last Monday, directing the center to shut down by the end of the day on Tuesday.

“When OMB asks, you do it,” he said. “So we did as we were told to do on Tuesday, which was shut down.”

Later, when he followed up about the status of the funding freeze, Nolan was told programs like Head Start and Meals on Wheels would not be affected. But since then, he said the payment management system of the U.S. Treasury, which he uses to request funds for things like rent and payroll, has not been working. 

While funding requests normally take only two to three days to process, Nolan said a request he made last Tuesday is still “pending review.” And unless the issues with the payment management system are resolved quickly, he won’t be able to pay his staff on time.

“I’m not looking forward to missing the first payroll in the 57 years that I’ve been doing this work,” he said.

Nolan is not sure how many of his 65 staff members will be able to return if the center opens its doors again. He said he heard from one long-time employee that she is unable to apply for unemployment and will likely need to search for a new job. 

On top of that, the closure leaves many local families in the lurch. Nolan said that the program in Waukesha serves more than 300 children from 250 families. 

“These are real people with real lives that are getting really badly disrupted,” Nolan said.

He believes how this situation with Head Start plays out is “critical to the future of families in Wisconsin.” 

This May, Head Start is set to celebrate its 60th birthday. But Nolan worries about the future of the program in light of the week’s events.

“Will there be a 61st, 62nd year?” he asked. “Who knows? I don’t know.”