Tim Kaine Visits Higher Horizons youth development program in the Bailey’s Crossroads

Virginia’s U.S. Senator Tim Kaine made an extended visit to the Higher Horizons youth development program in the Bailey’s Crossroads section of Greater Falls Church Friday morning, and found a staff expressing deep concerns about the impact that the Trump administration is having on their ability to tend to the needs of the nation’s youngest and most vulnerable populations.

Kaine, who stressed in comments to the News-Press during the visit that he and his congressional colleagues are likewise concerned, said that what has been happening in terms of sudden funding cuts to vital programs is “very unprecedented” because unlike even the first Trump administration, these draconian changes are being implemented with “no attempt at providing a legal rationale.”

Among those who attended Kaine’s visit and spoke out to him during a group discussion was Kathleen Havey, a senior director of policy for the American Head Start Association who is also a Falls Church resident.

She noted that even with a court order to resume the funding of key programs, the slow and uneven access to funds is having a crippling effect on programs like Higher Horizons.

Sen. Kaine toured the facility, sitting in on a classroom where he sat with children and delighted them by reading from the classic children’s book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear.”

Higher Horizons is a private, non-profit organization founded in 1963 as the first licensed early care and education facility in Fairfax County. It serves 300 low-income children and families in the Bailey’s Crossroads and Falls Church communities.

It relies on funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Head Start, and the Fairfax County Office for Children to provide high quality, comprehensive early childhood education and development services to income eligible expectant mothers and children to age five and their families.

Sen. Kaine noted that the stand-alone and smaller non-profits providing these kinds of services to the young of economically disadvantaged families are facing grave challenges with the sudden Trump cuts.

No planning is possible when the programs are unable to gain access to funds and federal health care portals are shut down, Kaine was told. “It is very disheartening.”

“But we are Higher Horizons Strong,” he was told, and he stressed the importance of showing up at places like this one and “making sure that what is happening is seen and heard.”

Kaine said he is “optimistic” that some degree of normalcy will be restored through the dozens of lawsuits that have already been filed to assert the illegality of the Trump and Elon Musk moves.

Beyond them, he noted to the News-Press at the conclusion of his appearance, the ultimate recourse beyond the courts and Congress “lies with the masses of the people who will have to begin standing up.”

 “We have encountered an unforced error,” he said, “that is threatening our national commitment to our youngest children.”

But as of now, whole hospitals are on the chopping block and there is a high anxiety running through whole communities as people are scared to go out of their apartments for fear of encountering militarized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) units.

Compounding the problems, Kaine added, is the lack of information that is available at the federal or state level. “The administration is not telling us anything,’ he said, and that’s true for the Youngkin administration at the state level, as well.

“As we are trying to figure out what to do, we are getting zero information to work with,” he said. Even with court orders to resume funding these programs, there are glitches in the system which are holding things up and causing grave concerns.

Sen. Kaine said that with his visit to the Higher Horizons center, “the more I know, the more persuasive I can be” in turning the situation around.