When Congress talks about cutting federal spending it can be hard to visualize what all of the cuts could mean in day-to-day life. Now local groups are trying to show how a House-passed spending plan could disrupt early learning, reporting it would mean nearly 3,000 Washington State children would lose spots in Head Start and Early Head Start.

Late last month, the Republican-led House passed a spending plan designed to begin balancing the federal budget by making deep reductions in spending. As part of the plan, the bill would slash Head Start funding by 22 percent, according to data from the Children’s Home Society of Washington, Children’s Alliance, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids and Washington State Association of Head Start/ECEAP.

In Washington, the cuts would translate into 1,009 Head Start teachers, classroom staff and other staff losing their jobs, the groups report, and 2,989 children losing spots in Head Start and Early Head Start around the state. For example, the plan would cut up to 138 Head Start spaces at Children’s Home Society classrooms in Walla Walla and Seattle alone, according to Kelly Wiggins Bray, spokeswoman at the Seattle-based organization.

“Kids and families could lose services as early as the fall,” Bray said in an interview this morning. “We can’t take any cuts at this point.”

Bray and others won’t have to take cuts yet. The spending decisions are not a reality, and the Democratic-led Senate, where Head Start has powerful allies, including Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is now considering the plan.  Given the current drive to shrink the federal deficit, however, cuts to Head Start are a real possibility.

“It could absolutely happen,” said Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start/ECEAP.

The budget debate became even more complicated this week when the House and Senate could not agree on a spending bill, which would run through the rest of the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. Instead, they passed a two-week stop-gap measure.