(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Despite a federal judge moving to block the Trump administration's federal funding cuts from taking effect, some Head Start centers are still struggling to get funding.
Gov. JB Pritzker held a press conference to address the impact of the federal funding cuts would have had on the Two Rivers Head Start Program.
“If the federal government, if the administration isn't paying its bills, Head Start can't continue to function. They have to pay their teachers and their staff. They have to pay their utilities. They have to maintain their quality classrooms,” Pritzker said.
“They have to provide and give kids the, well, the security and the safety so that parents can go to work.”
Pritzker was joined by Kelly Neidel, the Executive Director of the Two Rivers program.
“It's nonprofit, we can't set a bunch of money aside like I wish we could, like I wish we had a secret stash, but we don't,” Neidel said.
Neidel spoke about how the centers have already had to let some of their staff go, and hopes it will not have to happen in the future.
Illinois U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (IL-D) was also in attendance.
“What he's really done is manufactured a crisis where everyone, including his own voters who depend on programs like Head Start, are hurting, worried about whether their local childcare provider will be forced to close their doors,” Duckworth said.
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