April 09, 2025

In Meeting with Chicago Head Start Provider, Duckworth Underscores How Trump and Elon Musk are Exploding Costs for Illinois Children and Families

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today met with leadership from Chicago Commons Association, Chicago’s second-largest Early Head Start and Head Start provider to discuss how recent cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will massively increase the cost of living for hardworking Illinois families, while harming the development of children. After unleashing Elon Musk—an unelected, unaccountable and unstable billionaire—to dismantle investments that help middle-class families get ahead, the Trump Administration last week announced the closure and termination of all staff at the Office of Head Start’s Region 5 office in Chicago, which providers like Chicago Commons rely on for training, technical assistance and help in approval to access funding. Chicago Commons operates four early education centers and provides Early Head Start and Head Start services in 15 additional Chicagoland neighborhoods. A photo from today’s meeting can be found on the Senator’s website.

“Despite running on the promise that he would lower costs for middle-class Americans, Donald Trump’s extreme cuts to federal services and funding hurt the same families he swore he’d protect,” said Duckworth. “Donald Trump’s agenda is out of touch and harmful to our kids, which is why I’m working closely with Governor Pritzker, Senator Durbin, Illinois Head Start Executive Director Lauri Morrison-Frichtl and local leaders and providers like Chicago Commons to repair the damage he’s already done and support this important program that helps middle-class families across Illinois.”

Today, Duckworth called on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for answers about the closure of five regional Head Start offices across the country, including the Region 5 office in Chicago. Last week, Duckworth joined 27 of her Senate Democratic colleagues in condemning the Trump Administration’s mass firings of federal employees at the Office of Head Start and the Office of Child Care, demanding Kennedy immediately reinstate these employees. The sweeping firings of staff from these critical HHS offices will severely restrict access to child care for working families and limit the federal government’s ability to administer and conduct oversight of nearly $25 billion in federal investments in early childhood programs.

Duckworth has been outspoken in pushing back against Trump’s illegal funding freeze that continues to inflict needless chaos, confusion and financial pain on Head Start programs and the middle-class families they serve throughout Illinois. Last month she hosted Illinois Head Start Association Lauri Morrison-Frichtl will be her guest to President Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress. Earlier this year she joined Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, parents, teachers and staff at Two Rivers Head Start in Elgin to highlight the financial setbacks for Head Start programs in Illinois.

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