By Ryan J. Foley
Iowa City, Iowa (AP) – The Trump Administration could prohibit research on the effectiveness of child protection programs, with plans to end dozens of university subsidies studying improvements to Head Start and childcare policy, according to a spreadsheet made public this week.
The document has listed more than 150 research projects envisaged for dismissal by the United States Ministry of Health and Social Services. He covered the subsidies funded by the planning, research and evaluation office, which indicates that it “builds evidence to improve life” by helping decision -makers to assess programs that help children and low -income families.
“These subsidies aim to learn to make programs more effective to pursue objectives such as the healthy development of the child, the reduction of abuse and the neglect and promotion of economic self -sufficiency,” said Naomi Goldstein, who led the office for almost two decades before retiring in 2022. “It is difficult to see why they will want to cancel these efforts.”
The cancellations of subsidies would add to deep cuts already promulgated to the administration of HHS for children and families, which plans to close five regional offices and suddenly dismissed hundreds of workers a month ago. Its staff increased from around 2,400 in January to 1,500, according to former employees, and the administration said it would fold the ACF in other parts of the HHS.
Other HHS divisions, such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, have already reduced billions of dollars in subsidies, including those related to public health, sex, race and other subjects opposed by the administration of President Donald Trump. The document published on Wednesday marked the first news of the plans for any mass licensees of ACF grants, although a spokesperson for the department later said that it was only an exceeded project.
The layoffs offered undoubtedly underestimate Head Start, the 60-year program supervised by the ACF which supports preschool studies and services to hundreds of thousands of low-income children. Head Start has faced mass layoffs and a plan to completely eliminate its funding in recent months. The subsidies being confronted at the end of studies intended to answer key questions and improve its operations, such as how to keep more educators in local Head Start programs.
The calculation sheet was also cited for dismissal subsidies worth millions of dollars for the first -rate centers dedicated at best for low -income children and Hispanic families, located respectively at Morehouse College in Atlanta and in a non -profit organization in Maryland.
Dozens of subsidies related to child care policy, the development of the child, the host family, the prevention of children’s abuse, the temporary assistance program for families in need and others have also been listed as canceled, reflecting the widespread ACF portfolio.
These studies help decision -makers to understand what is working, said a former administration official.
“The end of these projects without explanation not only wastes the dollars of taxpayers, but also threatens the basis of evidence behind the main security net programs,” said Katie Hamm, who was assistant ACF assistant secretary to the development of early childhood until January. “It is alarming that beneficiaries and entrepreneurs have to discover this way, through an accidental email, rather than a transparent process.”
The information was wrongly included in an email sent Wednesday to grant beneficiaries in universities and non-profit organizations by an HHS employee, who asked them to review and update their contact details.
HHS only recalled the message after the spreadsheet, which had a column to find out if the financing “would end” or “continue” for each subsidy, had been downloaded by the recipients. A spokesperson for the department said that the document contained “exceeded and pre-decisive information” but has not excluded that research inside the ACF could be cut.
“The ACF undertakes to guarantee that public funds are used in alignment with the priorities of the administration and are in the best interest of the American people,” said spokesman Andrew Nixon.
Goldstein, the former director of the research office, said that the situation “seems to reflect a level of haste and chaos” at the agency.
Only 21 subsidies listed out of 177 were marked with a note to “continue” funding in the document. A small number had already ended, and some were marked for termination “at the end of the budgetary period”.
The document did not list everyone’s financing, but the office was responsible for $ 154 million in grants and contracts during the year 2024.
More than 50 universities have been listed as having subsidies at the end. Several other state agencies and non -profit organizations would also be affected.
A follow-up email told the recipients not to take into account the spreadsheet, but again asked for updated contact details. A researcher who spoke under the cover of anonymity to avoid reprisals said they expected to receive an official notification soon that their subsidies would end. Several other grant recipients have refused to comment.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
