Zsa Zsa Heard, CEO of the City of LaGrange Housing Authority, recently applied for a grant that would allow each city to have a Head Start program. 

Head Start programs promote school readiness of children ages birth to five for low-income families across the country. According to its website, Head Start programs prepare America’s most vulnerable young children to succeed in school and in life beyond school.

The program works and watches children’s fine motor skills, developmental health and perceptual  development to ensure they are growing and learning at a healthy rate. 

Currently, the only city with the program is LaGrange, but the housing authority hopes to change that soon. The grant will allow a program to be located in each city in Troup County, including Hogansville and West Point. 

Heard and the housing authority have held meetings with all three mayors to try and achieve the vision. 

We applaud her for her efforts to help the children in Troup County. 

Having a program in each city will mean every child in family that faces economic hardship will now have the opportunity to attend one of these locations. They won’t have to drive across the county, or not be able to enroll due to distance. 

“We all see the desperate need to have early childhood education,” Hogansville Mayor Bill Stankiewicz said. “It is the biggest determining factor on how well that child succeeds. Not what happens in kindergarten but what happens way before then.”

If approved for the grant, Heard said the cities will need to help the housing authority find a good school site that could host the students. 

We hope this grant goes through, and we will all be able to see the children of Troup County reap the benefits.