And of course this Palo Alto Weekly online & its sister, print version has no comments as yet. Why? Our federal advocates like 1960s Patrick Moynihan are long gone for such Federal supplemental centers here, now in the 21 Cemt,. Yet local Head Start programs are non existent here in PA.
Head Start supports our early pre k children in to adulthood. Amazing Program. Get it going at Juana Brianas,Nixon, El Carmelo, Duveneck, Ohlone, Addison schools, ect. My child partook in Head Start, as I as a toddler. Invaluable. What is the issue in Palo Alto for Head Start . Does it bleed “poor”? I surmise that a 2 % poverty number for PA (not a realistic true number) is the reason. The Pandemic & wages not commiserate w cost of housing has excluded a large population of locals from accessing good, quality, child pre-school care . 12 elementary schools w many low income families enrolled, yet no alternative — except a very very long wait list for Palo Alto Community Child Care. What is the issue? Is it local sanctioned housing? The Great Recession, Health Care hole Extraordinary rising child care costs, no housing — a growing hole, Pandemic, then a “pending” recession. This city of plenty of billionaires yet has zero for the families who serve them? I’d say get a Head Start now. Poverty & housing insecurity, families without nets are here, now.

Palo Alto has handful of billionaires who pay limited property tax and some sales tax. Cities do not derive revenue from income tax (not that many billionaires pay that anyway, but that's a state/fed problem to solve). How do you expect the city or school district to extract money from ' billionaires to fund this program you want? A key to being a successful advocate is to ask the right person in the right agency at the right time in the process. (usually a little before budget planning starts.) We can't tax billionaire residents. They might donate to a non-profit dedicated to childcare for local underprivileged children, if asked. A local model exists for public school education (PiE) and some wealthy residents have been very generous.

You keep asking for money from the city--housing, child care. I agree these things are important. Understand the revenue sources of your government agencies city, school district, county, state, fed, etc.) and agency jurisdictional authority and responsibilities....and your non-profit options. City of Palo Alto, together with PAUSD, does more than most cities to support child care via PACCC. The federal government funds Head Start programs through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. If it is true that Palo Alto is not getting money for that (and I don't know whether that is true or not), has the city applied for that funding? Would they qualify? I don't know. Do you?

Pick an issue. Focus on it. Dive deep and facilitate progress. Stop calling for the city to solve all the world's problems. All Palo Altans are not rich. Many are maxed out just paying their bills and mortgages (or rent--almost half of Palo Alto residents are renters). Be a citizen who understands the system--one who and looks for and offers solutions to knotty problems. There will always be more problems and fewer resources than we need. How can we make the best use of the resources we have?

Many who go into childcare do not like children, it's a default job. Take our PAUSD teachers. I attended Paly in the '80s and the secondary school teachers chose it as a career and taught well. Now? People teach in this area for the 6 figure salaries, not because they are good teachers or even enjoy teaching. PAUSD English teachers all taught us how to write well and would correct our papers extensively with red pens. Now, they hardly assign papers because they don't want to correct them and insist on paid time to correct them.

People should save up and work 2 or 3 jobs before having children because others cannot be trusted to watch them. I never trusted my kids to any caretaker.