America, we can't have it both ways. We cannot expect immigrants to assimilate and thrive, then refuse to fund programs that help them do just that.

For shame, Uncle Sam, at your slash in federal funds used to help immigrant families learn English, forcing an end to the Even Start program run by The Literacy Center in Attleboro.

Even Start's last day was Thursday after a five-year run in the city. It was operated by the school department for two years and The Literacy Center for three years.

Give us the federal budget for a day and we'll find plenty of special-interest pork-barrel items - like Alaska's $200 million bridge to nowhere - more worthy of erasure.

We urge our lawmakers to go to the battlefront on this issue, which is about education, economic stability, the grooming of the next generation and the molding of citizens who are able to fend for themselves in daily life and in the workplace. "There are not a lot of federal funds out there for family literacy, so to lose what little there is, is very disappointing," Literacy Center Director Joan Ricci said.

"Disappointing" is a gracious assessment.

It stinks to high heaven.

The $175,000 grant represented about 40 percent of The Literacy Center's budget last year, she said. Ricci hopes to find other sources of funding, but in the meantime educations are put on hold.

Attleboro leaders, you should make note that the government did accord funding for similar programs to larger cities, including Fall River and Lowell. Do you care?

If so, and if you are able to read this, sit down at your computer or with pen and paper in hand and use your skills to protest to your congressman this injustice. We suggest that those who have benefited from Even Start be included in mounting an appeal by writing their own letters.

For your information, compare $175,000 with these figures:

E The Space Shuttle Endeavour, the orbiter built to replace the Space Shuttle Challenger, cost $1.7 billion.

E The estimated final cost of the war? About $1.8 trillion.

E Since 1996 the federal government has spent over a half a billion taxpayer dollars on abstinence-only programs, shown by various indices to be ineffective. Yet recent Department of Labor figures suggest illiteracy costs the United States $225 billion a year in lost productivity.

And that does not assess the personal costs to families intent on providing a better life for their children. Without the ability to read and write, children fall behind in school, become isolated from peers and may eventually join the lists of school dropouts with little hope for gainful employment at a time when even a high school education is considered insufficient preparation for the workplace.

They will be unable to read a map, a menu, a doctor's prescription, a road warning.

In Massachusetts only four out of 22 Even Start programs were funded for the upcoming year, which starts in September.

What are you going to do about it?