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Fedor Urges Head Start Providers to Keep Pushing for Federal
Funding before Wednesday Deadline
Says future of Ohio’s children depends on access to quality
educational opportunities
Special to The Truth
With a looming Aug. 24 deadline to apply for funds through
the federal Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head
Start-Child Care Partnership Grants, State Rep. Teresa Fedor
(D-Toledo) gathered with over 20 childcare experts and
providers from across the state this week for a news
conference call to urge other Head Start providers to pursue
the federal grant while the Toledo lawmaker fights for the
reversal of a new Kasich Administration restriction that
prohibits layering state and federal funds for early
childhood education.
“I don’t want people to lose hope. Our children’s future
depends on us pushing forward, collectively with one voice
to say we will not back down,” said Fedor. “We will
fight for our future. We will fight for our children.”
The Kasich Administration’s new restrictions could
jeopardize Ohio’s share of $135 million in total program
funding available through the Early Head Start Expansion and
Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership Grants. Childcare
experts and early education providers on the call applauded
Fedor’s call to meet the Aug. 24 deadline while also
highlighting challenges the new restriction puts on Ohio
providers.
“We absolutely need to apply, but our ability to be
competitive and win is really being compromised by the
state,” said Jeff Lakes, CFO of Miami Valley Child
Development Centers, Inc.
The state estimates the new rule restriction, which
prohibits pre-school providers from layering federal and
state funding to serve more children and families, will cut
$12 million in state funding to pre-school providers
throughout Ohio, not counting hundreds of millions of lost
dollars in federal grants and private dollars for early
childhood programs.
“We have been able to serve the most at-risk children with
the highest-possible quality programs because we have been
able to layer funds,” said Karen Lampe, president of
Creative World of Learning, a Miami Valley early-childhood
education provider. “Providers like myself in
partnership with Head Start organizations have been able
retain higher degree teachers, better curriculum and
assessment programs and lower teacher ratios, but with the
state’s new restriction we are very concerned about being
able to offer that same level of high-quality.”
Fedor said that during the last 24 hours she has heard
early-childhood education providers lose hope in the face of
the Kasich Administration’s new funding restriction. The
Northwest Ohio lawmaker promised those on the call that if
they did their part and applied for the federal funds, she
would continue to work toward a rule reversal in Columbus.
“We are in this harrowing situation right now because the
governor never picked up the phone and called anybody,”
Fedor said on the call. “Our children and their future
success is not a partisan issue; Republicans, Democrats,
advocates and the business community all agree that
childcare providers should be able to utilize every resource
available to provide low-income, vulnerable children with
the early education they need and deserve.”
Fedor, in concert with
numerous Democratic and Republican lawmakers, county
officials, education experts and business leaders have sent
Gov. John Kasich letters detailing the implications of his
administration’s new restriction and calling for him to
reverse the new rule.
“Ohio is risking the very real possibility of leaving at
least fourteen-million new dollars on the table because of
the state’s new restriction,” said Barbara Hexton, executive
director of the Ohio Head Start Association, Inc. “We have
always been very successful in our grant applications, but
funding for high quality services for our children is now
being jeopardized by the state.”
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