Food costs are up 29%. Health insurance costs are up 18%. Transportation costs are up 15%. For the Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma/Canadian Counties, which has run local Head Start classrooms since 1965 and now serves almost 1,000 children, those numbers are colliding with federal funding that has barely moved — and the agency's executive director says something has to give.
Flat Funding Meets Rising Bills
Jessie Thompson, executive director of the Community Action Agency, told KFOR that the cost of simply keeping Head Start running has climbed sharply over the past year, even as the program's federal funding has stayed mostly flat. Head Start is a federal program that provides free early childhood education, health and family support services to children from birth to age five in low-income families, and the agency's share of that funding comes straight from Washington rather than from local or state coffers.
That mismatch is forcing hard choices. According to the report, the agency is prioritizing basic costs like food and gas over some staff professional development, tuition payments and reimbursements for teaching staff. “We're having to pay more for our food or pay more for our gas,” Thompson said, per the outlet's reporting, adding that rising costs paired with flat funding make it difficult for the agency to keep operating and to pay staff enough to keep pace with their own rising expenses.
Nearly 1,000 Children, 18 Sites, One Funding Pinch
The agency has provided Head Start services at 18 sites across Oklahoma County, according to its own program description. Its Head Start Policy Council, made up of parents representing each of those 18 centers plus three community representatives, approves funding applications and sets criteria for recruitment, selection and enrollment priorities, the agency's board materials note. Thompson has led the organization since January 1, 2020.
Without additional funding, the KFOR report states, classrooms could be forced to shut down, and available slots could shrink to only what the agency can staff. The National Head Start Association is pushing Congress for a nearly 5% cost-of-living adjustment and other funding increases, though the outlet's report does not indicate whether that request has been granted. Thompson described U.S. Representatives Stephanie Bice and Tom Cole as strong supporters of Head Start, but the station said it had not heard back from them or other members of Oklahoma's federal delegation about their positions on funding.
A Squeeze Playing Out Beyond Oklahoma City
The pressure isn't unique to the Oklahoma City area. In Massachusetts, Head Start programs have lost 1,300 slots over the three years before April 2026 as federal funding was held flat, according to CommonWealth Beacon. That state's Head Start network serves more than 11,000 children annually across 28 programs and employs roughly 4,000 early-childhood professionals, with the state kicking in $20 million on top of $189 million in annual federal funding — and the Massachusetts Head Start Association has asked state lawmakers for a $4.56 million increase just to fund a 3% staff cost-of-living adjustment. During the recent federal government shutdown, four Head Start centers run by Self Help Inc. in Brockton and Norwood closed entirely, leaving roughly 550 children without care and more than 150 staff furloughed, the outlet reported.
Statewide in Oklahoma, Early Head Start and Head Start programs serve 14,800 children at no cost, but that reaches only 14% of children eligible for Early Head Start and 30% of those eligible for Head Start, according to data compiled by the First Five Years Fund. The same data shows infant care at Oklahoma child care centers rose 27% from 2023 to 2025, with the average annual cost of child care in the state now running $10,809, or $901 a month.
Cost Pressures Across the Child Care Sector
The squeeze extends beyond Head Start's federal funding stream into the broader child care industry. Oklahoma child care providers have separately reported rising employee, food and insurance costs, with one provider telling KGOU, “Our costs of our employees have gone up. The food costs have gone up to feed these kids. Our insurance costs have skyrocketed.” That same report noted a five-star-rated Oklahoma provider warned that losing its quality rating could cut its annual budget by roughly 15%.
Nationally, child care providers reported that the cost of paying educators rose 4% from 2024 to 2025, while liability and property insurance costs each jumped more than 20%, according to a report from NewsNation. For families and agencies alike, the numbers point to the same underlying problem Thompson described in Oklahoma City: the bills for feeding, insuring and transporting young children are rising faster than the funding meant to cover them.
