Rose City
Connections
Portland stop
brings interview with
rapper Tech N9ne
'Hero of the Heart’
College leader works
fo r equal access to
higher education
See Local News, page 3
See Arts & Entertainment,
page 13
‘City 0/Roses'
Volume XLIII
Number 39
bscriicrd
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 9, 2013
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photo by D onovan M. S mith /T he P ortland O bserver
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the'raCbVlt'eS While Congress debates fdnding for government programs. The 48-year-otd Portland program is
under the threat o f shutting down for the year, if Congress does not reach an agreement by the end of the month.
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Head Start watches
the shutdown clock
D onovan M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Leaders at Portland’s Head Start program are
worried about the possibility of shutting down for
the year if Congress does not soon reach an agree­
ment on the budget and the looming debt ceiling.
Ron Herndon, the director of Albina Head Start,
said when the federal funding for Head Start runs
out at the end of the month, the Portland program
will no longer be able to continue serving its pre­
school children of low-income and poor families.
Herndon said the situation was worse than the
last government shutdown in 1995.
At that time, Head Start was in the middle of their
On
The Brink
funding calendar, so federal dollars were still available to keep it afloat. The current
financial crisis comes just as the budget calendar for Head Start was set to begin.
“We have not gotten our grant for the next year, so that means there is no
money to pull down at the end of this month," he said.
Herndon said it takes about $600,000a month to run Albina Head Start which
serves more than 1,000 children and families.
Despite trying to keep a sense of normalcy at the
program, he says parents have come to him ex­
pressing high anxiety over the possible shutdown.
“Many of the parents are single-heads of house­
holds, the overwhelming majority, 99 percent are
women. And it’s only because of this program that
they are able to go to work, or to a training program.
Several of them have two jobs. So if this falls
through, you’re just throwing an additional burden
on the back of some of the most vulnerable families
in Portland,” he said.
Albina Head Start also provides immunizations,
vision exams, hearing exams, all free o f cost. A shut
down would force these families to find other
avenues to provide basic health services for their
children.
continued
on page 10