After-School Program Cuts Worry Communities

(March 31) -- Unprecedented cuts to after-school programs have law enforcement and other leaders struggling to preserve them with dwindling resources and worrying about the potential impact on communities and public safety.

"Quality after-school programs are a crucial weapon against crime," said Susan Manheimer, president of the California Police Chiefs Association.

Police Chief Richard Word of Vacaville, Calif., agreed. "People say that it's not public safety, but it is," he said to journalists in a recent conference call. And in the 2 to 6 p.m. after-school window, he added, it's "high time for juvenile crime."

Manheimer and Word were reacting to a new report by an anti-crime group showing that after-school programs provide safe activities -- including homework help, conflict management, sports and games -- for more than 400,000 California students every day.

The study was done for an affiliate of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national group of 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and leaders of police officer associations concerned about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's expected plan to cut $8 billion from education spending.

The concern is not limited to California. Around the country, hundreds of after-school and summer programs are either already on the chopping block or under threat of closing by cash-strapped cities and states.

An out-of-school program in New York City will shut down 33 free after-school programs and 31 summer programs to save $7.5 million, effective June 30. "We're heartbroken about it," Lucy Friedman, president of After-School Corp., told AOL News. "Some of the children will be out on the street finding trouble or trouble finding them."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's controversial plan to reduce public school spending by 5 percent threatens after-school programs for thousands of kids. At a Saturday meeting, education board members in one school district -- Morristown -- voted unanimously to eliminate all summer and after-school academic programs at elementary and middle schools after losing more than half the district's state aid.

School districts in the St. Louis, Mo., metropolitan area are also cutting back. Worried the state won't reimburse them, the St. Charles Board of Education canceled all summer-school programs, saving about $240,000 this year. Two other school districts will start charging for once-free enrichment programs.

After-school proponents point to long-standing research that shows youths are more likely to engage in risky behaviors from 2 to 6 p.m., when as many as 15 million latchkey children with working parents have nowhere to go after school, except to an empty house.

After-school hours are the peak time for teens to experiment with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and sex, according to studies by the Urban Institute and others.

In addition to increased criminal activity, research indicates a host of other problems bedevil unsupervised youth: They're more likely to get in car accidents, more prone to obesity and have lower social competence.

Conversely, research shows kids who participate in after-school programs earn higher grades, have improved attendance and are more likely to graduate from high school. After-school programs are also credited with helping to close minority achievement gaps in some states, including New Jersey, which reportedly is closing the gap faster than any other state.

But New Jersey faces a $10.7 billion deficit. Christie lays some of the blame for slashing education money by more than $1 billion on the powerful New Jersey Education Association. In a very public battle, he wants the teachers union to agree to a one-year wage freeze and put 1.5 percent of their salary toward health benefits.

That would "save $800 million this year, and all of the cuts across 580-plus [school] districts would be wiped out," Christie reportedly said at a meeting of a commercial real estate development association. "These are the fights [with public sector unions] we need to have," he said, to prevent New Jersey from becoming a "second-tier state and economy."

A spokesman for Christie told AOL News the governor stands by his words and, as he has many times, rejects the notion that he is anti-teachers and anti-public schools.

Some New Jersey school districts have embraced the governor's proposals. The West Essex School Board agreed to both the salary freeze and contribution to health benefits, saving the district $25 million and avoiding layoffs and program cuts.

Instead of wholesale cuts, officials in New York softened the blow with a somewhat complicated formula to preserve after-school programs that "serve the needs of working parents of youth residing in high-need areas." Yet, even after these "difficult cuts," an official said, the city's Out-of-School Time Program still supports 440 programs, at a staggering cost of nearly $100 million.

California pumps more money into after-school programs than any other state, the majority of it from a 2002 voter-approved measure, Proposition 49. It provides $550 million yearly for academics, homework help and recreational programs aimed at students from low-income families.

"It's not a police problem, it's a community problem," Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry said in announcing a new gang-prevention program set to start in May.

Skerry and other Fight Crime leaders say that with long waiting lists throughout the state, more funding, not less, is needed for after-school programs, still lagging in 2,000 schools in low-income neighborhoods.

The effort to increase federal support of after-school programs got a boost last week when Secretary of Education Arne Duncan expressed his belief in the value of quality after-school programs during a budget hearing.

Also, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which operates after-school programs receiving federal funds, announced that 25 members of Congress had signed a letter requesting an increase in funding for its programs.

Meanwhile, some California education officials are starting to wonder whether dwindling state and federal resources might be better spent on core educational programs during the regular school day.

Vacaville schools Superintendent John Aycock suggested to AOL News that state leaders "engage in a serious discussion as to [whether Proposition 49 money] should be temporarily diverted to support the core programs during the regular school day or continue to use the funds to support after-school programs.

"It's at least worth a serious conversation, yet that conversation has not taken place at the governor and legislative level," he said.

Still, Aycock repeated his "avid" support of after-school programs and belief that "every school should offer an after-school program."

For now, supporters say after-school programs are part of the solution not just for raising academics but also for helping ensure public safety.

Richmond, Calif., Police Chief Richard Magnus said in a television interview:

"It's both smarter and cheaper than building more prisons."