Dear Editor,

Warsaw Community School Board recently made a decision to close the Claypool and Leesburg preschool classes. Many parents are questioning, is early childhood education a priority for the area’s public school corporation? With full understanding how funding cuts play a major role in the decision, I believe that all possible funding sources were not looked into before the decision was made to close these classes.

The preschool program at these schools followed the HighScope curriculum. Although many are not familiar with this curriculum, studies prove how effective the curriculum is, compared to other traditional preschool curriculums. Early childhood educators agree that HighScope is a proven, research-validated preschool curriculum that blends knowledge of respected theorists with current research. Long-term studies show that HighScope promotes healthy development of children and provides long-lasting benefits throughout adulthood.

A child who has a high-quality preschool experience will be ready to succeed in the classroom and in life.
The school board says a silver lining in the closing of the current program is that HeadStart will be moving into the current rooms and starting classes next fall. They do use the HighScope curriculum to some extent and that might be great for some families, however, for my family and many other families, our children will not qualify to attend this program. Financial guidelines must be met by each family in order to qualify.

I feel the Warsaw area is facing a preschool crisis, a few other preschools have recently closed and most now have a waitlist for next year. None in the area use the HighScope curriculum; most that I spoke to didn’t even know what this was. This late decision from Warsaw Community School Corporation has left many families with no option for preschool for next year.

I am looking to other neighboring school districts to see what their priorities are and I know of one particular neighboring district that is continuing their similar HighScope preschool program because they view early childhood education as more of a priority and are putting their own funding into continuing to provide this program in their district. I plan to express my concerns to my state representative about educational funding cuts made by the state. I encourage others who share this same concern to write letters to their state representative as well. Indiana is one of fewer than 10 states to still not fund public preschool programs.

Jennifer Metzger,
Warsaw