The Trump administration’s recent proposals to significantly overhaul Head Start could hand Democrats another issue to attack Republicans on the affordability front. But congressional Democrats have largely left the issue untouched, passing up on an easy opportunity to score political points ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

This month, the Department of Health and Human Services released a sweeping proposal that would reduce federal standards, including eliminating class size requirements, reducing the administrative spending cap from 15% to 5% of grant funding, and implementing English-only instruction. The changes would drastically reduce federal rules that govern the 1,600 Head Start programs nationwide that serve 700,000 children.