Trump administration cancels Head Start teacher pay rule

Repeal takes effect in January, undoing Biden-era pay parity mandate

The Trump administration said Friday it would cancel 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 canceled requirement would have required large Head Start programs to increase teacher pay in stages until it reached parity with what local public preschool teachers earn.

The rule was created under Democratic President Joe Biden. In addition to the pay-parity schedule, it called for expanding employee benefits, and it would have cost around $2.1 billion annually by 2031. The administration announced Friday that it was finalizing the repeal of the pay-hike mandate, and the new rule will take effect in January.

Officials presented the repeal as a way to stretch existing funding further. 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. “The Trump Administration is working hard to ensure that the promise of Head Start reaches as many children as possible with the funds Congress has appropriated,” said Alex J. Adams, an assistant secretary at Health and Human Services who oversees Head Start.

Pay and staffing are the concerns advocates raise in response. Some programs have been unable to recruit enough staff to operate at capacity and have had to shutter classrooms and preschool centers, and teacher turnover was particularly acute during the pandemic. More than 20% of Head Start teachers left in 2022, some fleeing for higher-paying jobs in public schools or in other sectors, such as retail or food service. Advocates for Head Start educators say eliminating pay hikes could hurt enrollment.

A majority of Head Start teachers hold bachelor’s degrees. According to data reported by programs in 2026, Head Start teachers with master’s degrees earned less than $60,000 a year on average, while those with only a bachelor’s degree earned less than $50,000. Public schoolteachers, meanwhile, earn an average of $75,000 a year, according to the National Education Association union.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children said the Trump administration “asks Head Start educators to keep doing more for less.” If teachers move on to other jobs, kids cannot enroll, the group said. “A funded slot without a qualified teacher serves no one.”

Congressional Democrats, who take control of Congress in the new year, also put their position on record. This past June, they authored a letter urging the Trump administration to change course and leave the Biden-era pay requirements in place.

Head Start itself dates to the 1960s, when it began as an antipoverty initiative. The program targets children in low-income households, plus those who are homeless or in foster care or have disabilities, and it provides training and job opportunities for parents along with education for preschoolers. It has long had bipartisan support.

Other actions by the administration bear on the same program. A White House budget draft last year proposed scrapping Head Start altogether. More recently, Adams proposed scrapping many of Head Start’s regulations, which form the basis for many of its signature offerings, such as medical screenings and family supports. Adams’s proposal would also do away with federal student-to-teacher ratios, deferring instead to state childcare regulations, which the Associated Press reported tend to be looser.