Trump administration cancels mandatory pay hike for Head Start teachers

By MORIAH BALINGIT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday canceled a rule mandating pay increases for teachers in Head Start, the federally funded early education program that serves more than 700,000 of the nation’s neediest preschoolers every year. The move undoes a requirement, created in 2024 under President Joe Biden, that large Head Start programs gradually increase pay for teachers so they would reach parity with their local public schoolteachers. The Biden-era rule also called for expanding employee benefits and would have cost around $2.1 billion annually by 2031. The money saved could allow Head Start programs to serve more children with the same amount of federal funding, President Donald Trump’s administration said. The administration has pushed to scrap many of Head Start’s quality regulations, saying programs can enroll more kids if they have more flexibility on spending.

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