Rhode Island Second District Congressman Seth Magaziner visited CHILD, Inc. in West Warwick Tuesday to voice his strong opposition to House Republicans’ proposed education budget.

The congressman was joined by CHILD, Inc. CEO Michelle Wolstenholme, Rhode Island KIDS COUNT executive director Paige Clausius-Parks, Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals Frank Flynn, State Senator Val Lawson (D-East Providence) and Bernelle Richardson, the mother of a current Head Start student.

The GOP budget proposal a 28 percent cut in education funding. Overall, this would result in a $64 billion cut to a budget that is currently $228 billion.

Particular cuts in the GOP plan include the Head Start and Title I programs, which provide low-income families with assistance for early childhood education and elementary learning, respectively.

According to Magaziner, the proposed could cost as many as 800 teaching jobs in the state.

“It’s especially severe, and it’s especially cruel,” Magaziner said.

Clausius-Parks said that she was alarmed by the potential cuts, and that the work that early childhood educators do is critical for children that come from lower-income families.

“For generations, children, families and educators in Rhode Island have relied on federal funding for Head Start and Early Head Start programs to provide high quality early learning experiences for our most vulnerable children,” Clausius-Parks said. “Congress needs to fully fund these proven programs.”

Wolstenholme noted that workforce shortages and retention have been a significant issue for CHILD, Inc., and that the GOP plan would exacerbate the problem.

“We are unable to provide the high-quality early learning programs and support that the federal government pays us to provide,” Wolstenholme said. “If there are additional cuts, we will be devastated. The Head Start program may not be able to survive, and certainly the most vulnerable and the youngest children in this country are going to lose out.”

CHILD, Inc. is a nonprofit that serves students eligible for the Head Start program in Kent County, and consists of four locations- two in Warwick, one in Coventry and the location in West Warwick that Magaziner visited.

Richardson, a mother of three, said that the Head Start program made a clear difference in her life, as well as the lives of her husband and children. At no point was that clearer to her than when she found that her youngest son was ineligible for assistance with the program.

“My monthly paychecks were swallowed up by childcare, leaving me with the stark choice: work to support my family, or to pay for childcare,” Richardson said. “The economic burden of childcare remains a harsh reality and makes it hard to strike a balance.”

Despite these challenges, Richardson said that the help that she received from Head Start with her older children made her education to become a nurse and her husband’s training to become a welder.

While the GOP plan is unlikely to pass due to a Democratic majority in the Senate, which has already released a plan with no education cuts, Magaziner said that it was still important that House Democrats push back against the proposed cuts.

Magaziner also said that he believes that the Republican agenda is being set by the most extreme members of the GOP caucus, and that many other members of the party do not agree with the

“The agenda that they’re pushing I don’t think represents what most Republicans in the house want,” Magaziner said. “And it certainly doesn’t represent what most voters want.”