(The Center Square) – While the focus of the ongoing federal government shutdown lately has been on SNAP benefits ending Saturday, seven of Ohio’s Head Start facilities could lose funding if a deal isn’t reached before Monday.
If seven of the state’s 59 locations shut their doors, nearly 4,000 students could be impacted. But that’s just the beginning.
Parents, employers, employees and others could feel the effect, as the economic consequences could stretch far beyond early-childhood education.
Groundwork Ohio, a children’s advocacy organization, says 3,738 children could lose access to their Head Start program, meals and health care Saturday.
Also, 900 teachers and drivers could be laid off, and 1,500 working parents could lose child care if the shutdown stretches to Monday.
Rob Moore, principal at Scioto Analysis, a Columbus-based organization that utilizes microeconomic analysis and statistical methods to evaluate public policy, stated that ending SNAP benefits and Head Start could have a significant economic impact.
“The most recent statistics say SNAP recipients in Ohio receive about $270 million in benefits per month,” Moore told The Center Square. “Annually, that comes out to about $3.2 billion. Compare that to the production of Ohio’s farm industry of $3.4 billion. Shutting off SNAP benefits to the state would have a comparable economic impact to all farms in the state suddenly ceasing to produce. If these support seven out of 59 slots, that means about 3,700 children will be left without child care on Saturday. That means thousands of Ohio families scrambling to find new child care arrangements, either having to secure new arrangements or miss work to make up for the disruption.”
The Head Start news comes on the same day that Ohio House Democrats pleaded with Gov. Mike DeWine to declare a state of emergency, similar to those announced in other states.
Louisiana, Vermont and Virginia all recently declared emergencies, while New York and Minnesota are freeing up emergency funds for food banks.
Both Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are Republicans.
Ohio Democrats believe a DeWine declaration would allow the state to send money to food banks and allow the National Guard to distribute food.
“Ohio families will go hungry without SNAP benefits, including over a half million children, over 250,000 seniors, and an estimated 45,000 veterans,” the House Democrat Caucus said in a letter to DeWine. “Time is of the essence, and we need to act before Saturday’s deadline. It does not matter where we stand on the respective sides of the battle over health care premiums in D.C., the reality is that the most vulnerable people across our state are going to go hungry if we do not act. We are urging leadership in the face of this crisis.”
