News broke last month that the federal Head Start program might be eliminated in next year’s congressional budget. Officials later changed course, but as the federal government searches for new ways to cut spending, it’s likely that Head Start could be on the chopping block again in the near future. That would be disastrous for hundreds of thousands of our country’s poorest children and their families in both rural and urban communities, and a major step in the wrong direction for our efforts to reduce crime and poverty in our nation.

Since 2021, concerns about crime have grown among both Republicans and Democrats. In a recent poll, nearly 60% of people said reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress. Another poll last year found that 75% of people still said the issue of crime was extremely or very important to their vote in the presidential election, and it was among Republicans’ top five issues.

Given the direct 

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