21st Century Community Learning Center
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Obama Budget Proposal Would Leave Millions of Youth at Risk
On Monday, President Obama released his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2011, and it was a bitter pill for the afterschool community to swallow. The President proposed flat funding the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) afterschool initiative next year, but also opening up 21st CCLC funds to the Full Service Community Schools Program, effectively inviting another community to share those dollars.
"This is more than a funding freeze; it is a setback," said Afterschool Alliance Executive Director Jodi Grant. "The President's proposal to divert funds from afterschool programs by putting them in competition with community schools for grants will effectively cut the funding available for the afterschool programs that children and families across the nation rely upon."
Grant noted that this is the second budget the President has submitted that did nothing to fulfill his campaign pledge to double spending for afterschool or create spots for one million more students to attend summer programs. Without the increase in funding that candidate Obama promised for afterschool, she warned, millions of children will have no safe, supervised, educational activities after the school day ends - and millions of parents will go without the care their children need.
Overall, the President asked for a $4 billion increase in education funding, a generous and very welcome increase for child care, and more funds for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Grant said she "hopes and expects that the STEM funds will be available to afterschool programs. Nevertheless, more than 18 million children would be in afterschool programs if they were available, and the President's budget provides funding for only a tiny fraction of them."
The Obama proposal also discusses several reforms to the 21st CCLC initiative that the Administration intends to advance during the reauthorization process. "Several of those proposals are troubling," Grant said, "and we look forward to working with the Administration and Congress to make sure the new authorization bill is fully supportive of afterschool programs."
There is vast unmet need for afterschool in this country. A 2009 survey of nearly 30,000 households, sponsored by the JCPenney Afterschool Fund for the Afterschool Alliance, found that 26 percent of America's children (15.1 million kids) are on their own in the afternoons - an increase of 800,000 since 2004. The parents of 18 million kids say they would enroll their children if afterschool programs were available.
Many afterschool programs are hurting and contracting. Current funding for the 21st CCLC is less than half the $2.5 billion authorized several years ago, which itself is a fraction of what is needed to make afterschool programs available to all children who need them. A survey of program leaders conducted last spring by the Afterschool Alliance found that some programs that were struggling before the recession are closing their doors, and many others are being forced to reduce the number of children they serve, cut hours and staff, and provide many fewer activities and supports for students who are in greater need than ever.
"Research clearly demonstrates that quality afterschool programs keep kids safe, inspire them to learn, and help working families," Grant concluded. "We hope that Congress will once again recognize the need for more quality afterschool programs and provide more funds for afterschool programs in FY 2011."
This story originally appeared in the Afterschool Advocate (Vol. 11, Issue 1).
Sec Duncan’s speech included some criticism of the 21stCCLC afterschool initiative.