Wednesday, February 8, 2012
While the news that Maine has lost out in its bid for a $75 million award from the federal Race to the Top fund is still fresh, 33 after-school programs in Maine are facing the prospect that their federal source of funds will dry up.
Alyson Klein of Education Week reports that while a Senate panel approved an albeit smaller extension of Race to the Top funds, the panel also took steps to revamp the structure of the 21st Century Community Learning Center program.
Instead of funding after-school programs for academically struggling students, Klein reports that a Senate appropriations subcommittee approved $1.3 billion to fund school-day and school-year extensions through the program.
Maine education observers will recall that the state's 21st Century Community Learning Center after-school programs were subject to an across-the-board 34 percent budget cut earlier this year, after state education officials discovered they had promised more federal grant money than they had available.
Perhaps the budget cuts the programs are implementing this year will be good practice for upcoming fiscal years, when their federal funds might be gone altogether.