Coloradans have less than two months to comment on the Trump administration’s plans to overhaul Head Start, which currently provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition and other services to low-income children and families.

The administration says the changes will allow more kids to access the program by eliminating standards like low staff-to-student ratios.

Heather Tritten, president and CEO of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, said keeping ratios low is key for providing the kind of deep support kids need to succeed in kindergarten and beyond.

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"That intense adult-to-child experience allows both the child to have more support and for that adult in the classroom to be able to identify the needs of that child," Tritten explained.

Head Start provides a number of wraparound services, including medical and dental screenings, and has helped generations of kids achieve better academic outcomes, get jobs as adults and improve overall health.

The program has long enjoyed bipartisan support but the administration contends Head Start and other federal mandates drive up costs and get in the way of standards the administration believes should be made at the state and local level. Head Start serves some 700,000 of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, including children of color, children with disabilities and kids who speak English as a second language.

Tritten stressed it is an important tool for connecting families to educational opportunities and other resources needed to get out of poverty.

"They do a lot of family engagement work. So it's not just serving a child with childcare, but also really engaging with the family that is living in poverty and working with them to ensure that the entire family is moving forward," Tritten emphasized.

The Trump administration’s Head Start proposal would eliminate nearly 1,400 regulations. Tritten acknowledged the program is not perfect and some changes to standards may be warranted but the administration's approach is not the right path to take.

"I think it would be great if we could have some conversation around, 'What are the changes needed within Head Start, and how do we make it more efficient and cut red tape?' without cutting the things that are critical for kids," Tritten added.