At Monday’s meeting of the Chesapeake Board of Education, Dr. Denise Shockley, the superintendent of Gallia-Vinton Educational Service Center, spoke out on the need for continued 21st Century Community Learning Center grants for schools in southern Ohio.

These grants have funded after school programs for Chesapeake schools, which allow students to get homework help, math and reading tutoring and to partake in cultural activities.

Recently, these programs have become endangered — first from a funding cut proposal by the Ohio Department of Education that, fortunately, was abandoned, and now from President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint, which calls for the elimination of the program.

Another issue is that, in the past year, the grants have been awarded more to northern Ohio, rather than southern Ohio, where poverty rates are the highest.

Shockley said the programs provide resources to students and parents, who would otherwise not have the advantages available to others.

These programs are vital to schools and have been a proven success in improving academic performance and academic leaders, parents and students should continue to speak out to demand that they remain in place.