Is Guam’s Head Start program on the chopping block? That’s the concern after reports surfaced that the Trump administration’s preliminary budget excludes funding for the early childhood education initiative. While nothing is set in stone, the possibility has education officials and lawmakers on high alert.

Imagine the island without the Guam Department of Education’s Head Start program - 27 centers across 20 schools, helping hundreds of young children grow and thrive. Program director Angelina Lape described the initiative, saying, “Head Start is a program that started to really give a head start in life to those who are really most disadvantaged in our community. Our categorically eligible students include foster, homeless, those under public assistance like TANF and SNAP—SSI, as well as those who are under the federal poverty guidelines.”

That could become reality if the program is defunded. Recent reports note that the Trump Administration’s proposed budget does not include funding for Head Start. And while there’s no official word yet, more uncertainty grows as Region 9, the federal office that oversees GDOE’s Head Start program, has been abolished.

Lape continued, “Health and Human Services has closed five of their regional offices, which include the one that oversees Guam - Region 9. We have not heard which region we fall under; we did submit our grant application, and we have not received notice that we aren’t going to be funded. As far as I know, our application is under review. We just don’t know who is reviewing it right now.”

To note, GDOE’s Head Start grant from the feds totals around $4.4 million. Locally, $1.6 million funds the salaries for about 19 staff.

Senators raised concerns during Wednesday’s oversight hearing, including former education oversight chair, Senator Chris Barnett, who said, “I would just suggest also write a letter to the governor write one to Trump, because this uncertainty and this dismantling of DOE, although some of my republican colleagues might be a good thing. I think it is very clear that it has the very real potential to be catastrophic for our public school system.”

Guam Education Board chair Angel Sablan shared the same worry, saying, “Not just schooling, but also their meals and everything they have that comes with Head Start. If there’s no funding at all—and our local government wants to keep it intact–then the legislature has to come forward and appropriate money for that.”

“If we keep saying that the kids are the most important thing in our government to work for and to stand for–then it’s time–if this does come to pass, that we do just exactly that.”