By Sarah Politis

Listen to an audio by Annenberg Radio News

Pending federal cuts as part of the March sequestration will affect many federal programs. Head Start, a federally-funded preschool for low-income families is one of those programs facing budget cuts.

While there are thousands of children who are part of the program, Philipa Johnson, Interim Director for the Head Start Program at USC said there are 577 children and families in the USC program alone.

“We’re addressing a need in the community which is to provide quality services to families and high quality education to children from birth to age 5,” Johnson said.

While there is nothing on paper to confirm the sequestor, Johnson is preparing for a five percent cut in funding. Johnson said these cuts would result in personnel cuts and limit the budget for student field trips.

According to a press release from Rick Mockler, the Executive Director of Head Star, an estimated 27,000 children and their families will be dropped from the program in California and about 6,000 staff members will lose their jobs.

“I don’t see where it will impact the children because we will still provide the health services, the educational services, services to children with disabilities,” Johnson said, “We’ll still provide food, nutritional serevices, we will continue providing services, so I don’t really see that, that’s really the framework of the Head Start program.”

However, Head Start isn’t the only federal program on the chopping block. Defense workers and national parks also face cuts.