Thursday night’s town hall meeting with state Rep. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, was exactly what town hall meetings should be: open, inclusive and free of shouting.

The meeting was sponsored by the Beaufort Patriot Tea Party, but this was no partisan affair.

Packing the Superior Courtroom of the Beaufort County Courthouse were people representing a wide range of interests.

There were parents speaking up for their children’s education, and anti-tax advocates pleading for smaller government.

Present were at least one county commissioner and at least one school board member, but this was the people’s show, and they took the floor without hesitation.

For his part, Cook was respectful and thoughtful, though he did get a little testy with one or two speakers.

Overall, the freshman legislator acquitted himself well in a challenging environment, the like of which has unnerved far more experienced lawmakers.

But for our money, the most powerful words of the night came from people speaking on behalf of children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities.

Shelley Walker showed up with her 5-year-old daughter Sidney, requesting that Cook support early education programs whose funds are being targeted by House leaders.

“These programs are not free handouts for irresponsible, lazy parents,” Walker said, adding she’s neither of those things.

“There are thousands of stories like my own,” she said, after noting the Legislature should make a minimal investment in the future by keeping these programs intact.

F. Ray Moore, a board member and past president of the Beaufort-Hyde Partnership for Children, said a $2 million state budget subsidy for child-care programs in this community would be slashed by 20 percent, or $400,000, under proposals broached in the House.

Citing comments from a past superintendent of Beaufort County Schools, Moore said these initiatives help prepare children for their first school years and increase their chances of graduating from high school.

And some local child-care facilities owe their high state ratings partly to these subsidies, Moore contended, adding that every dollar invested in child care saves $10 in government services down the road.

We join these speakers in asking Cook and his fellow lawmakers to pay all due attention to the needs of our state’s youngest educable residents. The parents of these children are taxpayers, too, and they vote ą sometimes in large numbers.

Yes, Cook handled himself well Thursday night. Now we’re counting on him to handle himself equally well in the Legislature as the budget debate unfolds.