Daisy Nguyen: [00:02:25] Birdie Winrow is a laid-off federal worker. She lives in the East Bay. I was introduced to Birdie because I’ve been covering a number of problems for Head Start since President Trump took office. And she wanted to talk to me about the impact of losing a job that she was really excited to have and just her concerns about the ongoing threats to a program that has really changed her life.
Birdie Winrow: [00:02:50] I’ve always been very passionate about Head Start.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:02:53] She was working at Head Start’s regional office in San Francisco.
Birdie Winrow: [00:02:58] I’ve done the work from the program perspective, but I wanted to learn more because I wanted it to serve more if that makes sense from a holistic perspective.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:03:05] She started not too long ago, back in January, so she was considered a probationary worker.
Birdie Winrow: [00:03:11] But it was a Thursday, I was watching the news, and I heard that probationary workers were being let go. And I’m like, oh, I’m a probationary worker. And so I was kind of concerned about it at the time.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:03:23] And then she abruptly lost her job beginning of April when the Department of Health and Human Services decided to close the office in which she worked at as part of its effort to downsize the government.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:03:40] What was Bertie’s reaction at the time to her being laid off?
Daisy Nguyen: [00:03:46] She was disappointed.
Birdie Winrow: [00:03:49] There are a lot of hearts that are broken right now.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:03:51] This was a job she had long wanted to have. She was really trying to make an impact. And she was also on the verge of buying a house.
Birdie Winrow: [00:04:03] My appraisal was going to happen. And soon as I got a message that, you know, it may be me, I pulled out of the contract in that same moment.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:04:16] The seller was even willing to sell it to her below asking price and she had to walk away from the deal
Birdie Winrow: [00:04:23] It took me three years just to get to this point to buy a house. I was really sad about it, but yeah.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:04:33] That’s devastating, Daisy. I mean, this is a program that Bertie herself has relied on. I mean tell me a little bit more about this program Head Start. What is it exactly?
Daisy Nguyen: [00:04:46] It was founded 60 years ago to help America’s poorest families break the cycle of poverty by caring for the kids while also helping their parents do better. Head Start is appropriated by Congress, but it’s run by local schools and nonprofits. So in California, Head Start grant recipients serve more than 80,000 low-income kids, and those recipients receive about a billion and a half dollars. I think most people think of Head Start as like a preschool early education program, but advocates and people who’ve experienced it say it’s more than just a preschool program. It provides meals for the kids, health screenings, and it supports parents in many different ways depending on where you are, like if you’re in a rural area, there’s a program call it Migrant Head Start program that serves. You know, seasonal workers. There’s early head start, which is for babies, infants to three-year-olds. There’s home visit programs where parents of newborns receive visitors into their home to get just advice on caregiving.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:06:08] And it turns out that Birdie, who was recently laid off from Head Start, also benefited from Headstart herself. What was Birdie’s experience with Head Start back in the day?
Daisy Nguyen: [00:06:19] Yeah, she told me that she was a 19 year old mom of two living in San Francisco. She was relying on public assistance to get by.
Birdie Winrow: [00:06:31] I want to be self-sufficient and but the only way I could do that is I had to put my babies in care
Daisy Nguyen: [00:06:37] She didn’t know anything about Head Start when she started that, because she told me she was raised by her grandmother. She never went to daycare. And so Head Start’s two-generation approach to uplifting families was just really eye-opening for her.
Birdie Winrow: [00:06:52] So a young mom with two kids, I wanted them to go to school so that I can go to work. And so that was my intention because I wanted to do more with myself.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:07:02] When she went to enroll her son in a Head Start program in the Bayview, Hunters Point neighborhood. Someone at Head Start told her that her son had to undergo a dental exam as part of the enrollment process.
Birdie Winrow: [00:07:17] And so for my teenage mind, I was like, he had to go to a dentist. Like, I don’t even brush his teeth every day.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:07:24] And that really was surprising for her because up to that point, she had never brought him to the dentist.
Birdie Winrow: [00:07:31] I took him to Western Dental, it was in the Mission District. We were there all day. But nonetheless, that was my beginning of loving Head Start.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:07:42] That moment was just sort of a light bulb moment for her. It made her become more aware of healthy child development. And it made her step up her parenting skills. Her three-year-old son at the time got child care. And she was able to go find work. And that was sort of the beginning of her journey. She was able pursue a career in social work and early childhood education. She kept on working while earning her college degrees. And then About 15 years ago she went back to Head Start to work in various jobs at Head Start, starting with being a toddler teacher and moving her way up to becoming a manager.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:08:25] Yeah, it sounds like this personal history with the program is really what drove her to kind of give back. [00:08:31][6.2]
Daisy Nguyen: [00:08:32] Yeah, exactly. She was very passionate about that.
Birdie Winrow: [00:08:37] My grandchildren have all been through either Early Head Start and Head Start or Early Head Start. My family has all touched it in some form or fashion. If you truly use the resources and the tools that Head Start provides, you can be any
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:09:03] Coming up, how the Trump administration’s layoffs are affecting Head Start, and why advocates fear there could be even more to come. Stay with us.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:10:06] Well, Daisy, going back to these layoffs happening at Head Start, there have been two rounds of layoffs so far that have affected this program, the latest happening on April 1st, which is when Birdie got laid off. What kind of impact have these layoff had on the program so far?
Daisy Nguyen: [00:10:26] Where Birdie worked she was among a staff of at least 15 people, maybe 18. They were serving as regional contacts for hit start programs throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Outer Pacific. So without this staff, these programs in these states, they don’t really know who to turn to if they have a question or if they need their grants renewed. Or if they need someone just to approve spending for things like replacing a playground or a child care center that was destroyed by a wildfire. I heard that example for one program in Altadena. Oh, wow. They’ve been told by the Department of Health and Human Services that they could go to some portal and submit questions, and those questions will be monitored by someone in the central office in Washington. I think it’s just causing a slowdown. And it’s hindering these local programs’ ability to conduct business.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:11:36] I mean, this might not be the last of these layoffs. What is the fear, I guess, moving forward here?
Daisy Nguyen: [00:11:46] There’s been widespread reporting that the White House wants to completely defund the program in the next budget. There’s a draft budget proposal that calls for eliminating Head Start. Project 2025 has called for doing that. And the main architect of that conservative policy blueprint is now the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. The conservative thinkers behind this policy say that the federal government shouldn’t be involved in child care programming. So, you know, it’s sparking a lot of concern because Head Start has such an important presence in California. In fact, the state receives $1.5 billion in Head Start funds to serve these low-income families. And in California, I was told about 75% of Head Start grant recipients lend state funding for preschool and child care with Head Start funding just so they can run their programs. So if you were to take away the federal funds Like these programs may have to like cut staff or shorten their days. So that’s gonna be a problem for a lot of working parents because, you know, having their child in full care, full-time care is what enables them to go to work.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:13:11] Coming back to Birdie here, Daisy, I mean, it sounds like her life has been incredibly affected by losing her job. I mean she couldn’t buy this home that she was really excited to buy. I mean what is she up to now?
Daisy Nguyen: [00:13:25] So she’s taking some time to take care of herself. She’s spending time with her grandkids and she’s trying to figure out her next step.
Birdie Winrow: [00:13:32] I want to make sure that my glass is full so that I can continue to pour.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:13:37] She also is continuing to teach at community colleges. And she’s just telling me that she’s trying to figure out how to advocate for Head Start.
Birdie Winrow: [00:13:50] I’m a living example of why Head Start matters and why Head start is important. Not only because I worked there, but a lot of times Head Start people continue. So they start off maybe as a child or they may start off as a parent, but in the end they give.
Daisy Nguyen: [00:14:12] Six of her grandkids have gone through Head Start II, and she just wonders, like, what’s gonna happen to the kids who come behind them? Like, will they get the same benefits?
Birdie Winrow: [00:14:22] About those 16 children in that classroom and them having a place to come to, to sleep, to eat, to rest, to be, that’s my concern.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:14:41] Well, Daisy, thank you so much for sharing your reporting with us. I appreciate it.
