AMERICAN FALLS — Community members could be seen donning colorful shirts that promoted American Falls’ City-Wide Preschool Initiative at a rally that was held on Wednesday in response to a bill that failed last week that would have provided $6 million in federal funds for early education.

Despite this, many residents and authority figures of American Falls remain hopeful that state representatives will review the positive effect that previous funding for early education has had for preschool-aged children and revisit the potential of changing their vote.

“Unfortunately, last week the House of Representatives decided they didn’t want to accept the $6 million for the federal grant and unfortunately they put politics over families,” said School District 381 Superintendent Randy Jensen on Wednesday. “So we are having our rally today to really send them a message … that this is an important program and this isn’t about politics, this is about families and helping strengthen families.”

Jensen and other coordinators from the initiative encouraged those attending the Read Talk Play Everyday Community Action Event to reach out to Rep. Randy Armstrong and Rep. Kevin Andrus and explain their support for federal funding for early education and how it positively impacts their communities.

Many in attendance were families of young children, including local Sierra Lammers, a mother whose two children have been able to use previous scholarship funds for preschool that the federal grants provided.

“We’ve been doing the Read Talk Play (Initiative) for a year or two and it’s been really good,” Lammers said. “We’ve been able to take advantage of the preschool tuition and scholarships they’ve offered and it’s been a lot of fun. We’re in such a tumultuous time and so many crazy things are going on and about the only thing you can really do and invest in is your future, which are your kids and family. You want to give them the best opportunity. You never want somebody’s political pride or agendas to get in the way of what’s important, which are the kids.”

Another local in attendance was KyAnn Phillips, who explained she’d experienced the help of preschool scholarships for one of her younger sons after witnessing her older son’s struggle with the transition from preschool to kindergarten.

Phillips, whose older son’s preschool was held for only three days a week and three hours per day, explained that her younger son now goes to full-time preschool every day thanks to a scholarship provided by the preschool initiative. This has helped cultivate a foundation for him to be ready for kindergarten, she said.

“The initiative really helped us to be able to take him full-time and pay less (money) and he’s getting that much more help,” Phillips said. “I feel like he’s a lot more developmentally ready…and I feel like it’s helping him have that structure. So it’s made a huge difference for us and I appreciate even having the opportunity to get a partial scholarship.”

Phillips expressed gratitude toward the preschool initiative and the resources that it’s provided.

“I feel like if you don’t have preschool kids then people don’t realize that it’s something that’s needed and parents sometimes don’t take the time themselves or don’t have the money to pay for preschool either,” she said. “So we appreciate the opportunity to do that and we appreciate having a great preschool to go to to prepare us for kindergarten.”

Others in attendance expressed similar sentiments, explaining how they’ve witnessed the community’s and Initiative’s efforts to strengthen local children and give them educational experiences crucial for their future development.

“The initiative in American Falls has been really great for the families and communities to develop younger children and get them ready for school and ready for life, so it would be great to see representatives of our state support our community,” said Shawna Teichert, a mother of four young children. “I know that my children have benefited from Read Talk Play and it’d be great to see that continue to further develop the preschools. … It’s important to start when they’re young.”

While there are no official plans to re-engage the bill currently, Mayor Rebekah Sorensen said she spoke with Rep. Andrus on Wednesday afternoon regarding the bill and said he’s “hopeful” that something will be passed.

“We’re hoping that there will be another vote within the week because the last vote lost by two votes,” Jensen said. “So if we can just change the minds of Rep. Andrus and Rep. Armstrong, that’ll be enough to swing it and we’ll be able to continue to do some of the great stuff we’re doing here and have funding for that.”

“This is really about quality families,” Jensen concluded. “Helping kids all start kindergarten at the same playing field, which will lead to a higher level of success here in American Falls.”