Sampson County’s Board of Education would do well to put the brakes on any thoughts of eliminating its Pre-K program. In fact, members shouldn’t even consider lowering the ax on the number of allotted seats, either.

Doing so would be a detriment to the county’s youngsters, many who can ill afford to be held back from any possible educational opportunity that will give them a leg up on their academic future.

And that’s exactly what North Carolina’s Pre-K program does. Started in 2001 as More at Four, the program is designed to provide high-quality educational experiences for eligible four-year-old children. Requirements are built on the premise that to be successful academically in school, children need to be prepared in five developmental areas believed to be critical to children’s overall well-being and success in reading and math as they enter school. Those areas are: approaches to play and learning; emotional and social development; health and physical development; language development and communication; and cognitive development.

It has, over the last couple decades, proven to help children ease into the school climate and be better prepared for kindergarten.

Both Clinton City and Sampson County schools have benefited from the program since its inception, or more precisely, children in the two public school systems have found their academic way thanks to Pre-K. It is disheartening, if not alarming, to think county school board members are considering eliminating or even cutting the program.

The mere fact that they are continuing a discussion begun in November leaves us wondering if they’ve even seen the system’s latest test scores, an academic thermometer that doesn’t paint the most progressive picture of how students, overall, have fared in their studies recently.

One would think school board members would be seeking more academic programs not less, and yet here they are at a crossroads apparently brought on by hopes of saving money.

We understand the county school’s financial woes.Without the supplemental tax that their counterparts in the city system have access to, Sampson has always had to borrow from Peter to pay Paul to ensure county students had the same advantages that those in the city system have had. We have always applauded those efforts, some which meant a need to penny-pinch in other areas to ensure academics remained the priority they always should be.

For decades county boards of education have found ways to maintain a strong, undesignated fund balance and still maintain academic readiness, never short-changing students.

That’s why looking to cut or eliminate the Pre-K program feels so wrong.

We empathize with the current Board of Education, understanding the challenges members face with regards to financing, but we cannot applaud cost-cutting measures that will hurt children. And we firmly believe cutting seats or eliminating the Pre-K program altogether would do just that — hurt our children.

Parents will have the strongest voice, and we urge them to consider joining our plea to school board members to find other avenues of savings that won’t directly impact the academic futures of young people.

With state and federal lawmakers doing their best to dismantle the solid public education that most of us benefited from as we great up, it is in the hands of our local boards of education to provide support for academics, a support that is needed so all our children have an opportunity to be among the best and the brightest.

Doing less short-changes all our future, not the least of which belongs to our children.