After School

Quality After-School Programs

• Support continued guaranteed funding of the After School Education and Safety program/Proposition 49.

• Support AB 1349 (Torlakson) to more effectively link Proposition 49 and Proposition 98, in order to ensure that after-school programs face proportionate cuts in difficult budget years and, in years when funding is available, receive cost-of-living adjustments like most education programs.

• Support SB 798 (DeSaulnier) to improve the quality of 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school programs, by increasing the per student funding level for these federally-funded, state-administered programs.

After-school programs provide safe places and constructive alternatives for children during the critical 2 PM to 6 PM hours when violent juvenile crime peaks. Research from California and across the nation shows that after-school programs can prevent crime and truancy, cut drug and alcohol use, reduce teen pregnancy, and increase academic achievement.

In 2002, California voters enacted Proposition 49, which increased funding for the state’s After School Education and Safety (ASES) program for elementary and middle school students by over $400 million, to a total of $550 million. The new funding became available in early 2007 and was in great demand—close to $200 million in applications had to be turned away. Today, even with Proposition 49 in place for many elementary and middle school students, hundreds of thousands of students from low-income working families are still left unserved by the major state and federal after-school and school-age child care programs. As Proposition 49 recognized, these programs need to be protected, even in tough fiscal times. They also should be expanded in terms of quality and reach when the California economy recovers.

We support through legislation the following proposals to protect and improve after-school programs in California:

AB 1349 (Torlakson) would support the long-term success and stability of California’s after-school programs by ensuring that, like other education programs, they benefit in good budget years and take proportional cuts in bad ones. To this end, this measure would more effectively link Proposition 49 and Proposition 98 education funding.

Consistent with the original intent of the initiative, AB 1349 provides a technical fix that is needed to ensure that ASES is subject to proportional cuts in bad budget years. This technical fix would have to be approved by the voters through a ballot initiative. It is clear that Proposition 49 intended to make after-school programs subject to proportional cuts. The Frequently-Asked Questions section of the campaign website included:

Q. What happens if after school programs are fully funded and general fund revenues decrease the following year?

A. Proposition 49 funding is subject to the same budget requirements as other educational programs. Should it become necessary to implement funding cuts, the initiative mandates that after school programs share those cuts proportionately.

http://digilib.library.ucla.edu/campaign/web/2002_998_059/

However, the current language related to reductions in Proposition 49 is inadequate: for example, the appropriation was not reduced last year, when general fund education funding was cut by $6 billion, because the language was too narrowly drafted and did not anticipate recent budget circumstances.

Ensuring that ASES takes its fair share of cuts in bad budget years, as always intended, will make it less likely that ASES will face repeal efforts, as it did last year, and in so doing will help protect the long-term stability of California’s after-school investments.

The measure would also ensure that after-school programs—like most education programs, including after-school programs funded separately though the state’s child care subsidy program—are able to receive cost-of-living adjustments to sustain program quality. The COLA would be subject to the annual budget act; it would only be provided when funding is available.

Together, these measures would protect the stability and success of California’s after-school program and protect the Governor’s after-school legacy.

SB 798 (DeSaulnier) would improve the quality of 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school programs, by increasing the daily per student funding level for these federally-funded, state-administered programs. The increase, which will come out of new federal after-school funding, would make per student funding consistent with the ASES program, which provides $10 per student, including $7.50 from the state and $2.50 from the local community. The 21st Century program currently provides $7.50 per student, while federal law bars requiring a local match. The bill also would encourage the use of a portion of this funding for summer and year-round programming and protect funding for high school programs.