Like families and businesses across Mississippi, Head Start programs are paying more for nearly everything. Groceries, fuel, utilities, and insurance all cost more, and our dollars simply do not stretch as far as they used to. For a program serving thousands of children and families, those rising expenses are becoming harder to absorb without affecting the services our communities depend on.
Here in northern Mississippi, Head Start is not some distant federal program. It is the classroom down the road where a child learns to write her name. It is the bus that picks up a child whose parents may not have another reliable way to get him to school. It is the teacher who lives in the same community as the families she serves. And, for thousands of parents, it is the support that helps them go to work knowing their child is safe, learning, and well cared for.
At The Institute of Community Services Inc., we see that every day. We serve more than 2,700 children and families through 20 Head Start centers and 172 classrooms across 14 counties in northern Mississippi. Keeping those classrooms open, buses running and services available costs more today than it did even a year ago.
As Congress considers funding for fiscal year 2027, we hope lawmakers will keep in mind what it takes for local programs to continue serving children and families well. A 4.97% cost-of-living adjustment, along with quality improvement funding and additional support for rising food costs, would help programs like ours keep pace with everyday expenses while continuing to provide the dependable, high-quality services families count on.
Those numbers may sound like Washington budget language. Here at home, they mean something much simpler: keeping good teachers in our classrooms, nutritious food on children’s plates and buses on the road.
The pressure is easy to see in our own budget. From February through May, our heating and cooling costs increased from $157,766 in 2025 to $171,162 this year. Food costs rose from about $1.61 million in the program year 2024-2025 to more than $1.75 million in 2025-2026. Fuel costs increased from $570,311 to $656,135 during that same period. Together, those three essential expenses rose by more than 10%. Our agency also spends more than $6.3 million each year on insurance.
These are not expenses we can simply do without. There are only so many places to find savings before the choices begin affecting children and families.
Transportation is one example. In many of the communities we serve, reliable transportation is not something every family can take for granted. As fuel and vehicle maintenance costs rise, programs may have to adjust bus routes, pickup locations, or services. For a family already juggling work and household expenses, even a small change can make it harder for a child to get to Head Start every day.
Some of the greatest pressure is being felt by our teachers, who are our neighbors. They shop in our stores, attend our churches, raise their families here, and show up every morning ready to care for someone else’s children.
Yet our equally-credentialed Head Start teachers earn approximately $25,000 less per year than their counterparts teaching kindergarten in public schools.
That is a hard gap to overcome when we are trying to recruit and keep talented people. When an experienced teacher leaves, other staff carry more of the load, children lose a familiar teacher, and, if a classroom cannot be adequately staffed, families can lose an early learning option they were counting on.
That is what the federal funding conversation looks like from northern Mississippi. It is not only about percentages or line items. It is also about whether local programs have what they need to keep serving the people who depend on them.
Head Start has been part of communities like ours for more than 60 years, helping children arrive at school ready to learn while supporting parents and families along the way. We want to keep doing that work, and we know Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, Sen. Roger Wicker, Rep. Michael Guest, Rep. Mike Ezell, Rep. Bennie Thompson, and Rep. Trent Kelly want Mississippi’s children and communities to succeed, too.
As our elected leaders and their congressional colleagues make decisions for the year ahead, I hope they will think not only about the numbers on a page but also about what those dollars mean when they make their way home to Mississippi.
They mean a teacher staying in a job she loves, a Head Start bus continuing down a rural road each morning, and breakfast and lunch for a child whose family is watching every dollar. Most importantly, they mean another Mississippi child getting the strong start every child deserves.
For families in the communities we serve, that support is part of everyday life here at home. And it is worth protecting.
This MFP Voices opinion essay reflects the personal opinion of its author(s). The column does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Free Press, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to voices@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints.
Mississippi Free Press stories are always free because we believe everyone should have access to quality journalism. Donations from readers like you make that possible. Please click here to give to help sustain and grow vital, people-over-power journalism for Mississippians.
Readers can sign up for our free newsletters here.
