Dear Editor: We Must Stop Shifting State Burdens to the Community

Dear Editor,

We must stop shifting state burdens to the community!

At a recent Whitehall Indivisible meeting, someone suggested our community "come together" to fund the preschool program being cut from Whitehall. But that's not a solution-it's a symptom of a larger failure.

Rocky Head Start is closing, and families here are losing access to those slots so they can go to Helena. Why? Because we only filled 13 of 16 spots. That doesn't mean the need isn't real. It means the system is failing small towns like ours.

Ninety percent of brain development happens before age five. Preschool isn't a lu...