Published: June 15, 2009 09:59 pm      

EDITORIAL: Early Learning Center

The city of Kokomo closed its Early Learning Center at 5:30 p.m. Friday. And there were tears – not for lost jobs, but for lost relationships.

“I had to leave early because I wasn’t going to be able to take it,” Melinda Miller told us. But the young mother attended the center as a child, as did her 4-year-old. Alayah.

Miller returned to say thank you to the staff

of 16.

“It’s understandable,” she said of the center’s shutdown, “but it’s hurtful when you’ve known the staff for so long that they’re part of your family, too. It’s like you’re losing touch with people.”

The 37-year-old institution – the only city-run day care in Indiana – was the victim of a bad economy. Before Mayor Greg Goodnight began imposing staff and spending cuts last year, the Early Learning Center had a $1 million annual budget, serving about 60 children. That equated to spending about $12,000 per year, per child.

We’re saddened that a city service that meant so much to so many since 1972 couldn’t be saved. But we’re also grateful the Kokomo Common Council and the Goodnight administration are serious about bridging their $2.5 million estimated budget shortfall.

And they aren’t going to do it with tax increases, short-term loans or accounting tricks.

Early Learning Center board member Lewis Hall, who sent his two daughters there when they were young, told the center employees Friday, “I’ve met no better people than you all here at the center. You’ve brightened my life.

“... It’s not how it ends, it’s what we add while we’re here,” he added.

We thank those employees, as well, for helping make our smallest residents and their families healthier and happier.