Contact:  Mary Dettloff 517-373-0429

GRAND RAPIDS -- Critical before and after-school programming efforts received unprecedented funding today as Governor Jennifer Granholm presented 13 sites across the state with more than $11 million during an announcement at a west Michigan middle school. The funding is made possible through a federal Department of Education grant for before and after-school programs.

In the first 18 months of the four and a half year 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) Program, the state of Michigan will award $11,161,154 to districts around the state who are on the cutting edge of educational innovation with before and after-school program offerings. Over the course of the grant program, Michigan is in a position to award more than $33.4 million to the sites, Governor Granholm said at Northeast Middle School in Grand Rapids.

“ We are absolutely committed to the importance of providing before and after-school programming for all of Michigan’s youth,” Governor Granholm said. “Even in tough economic times, parents, educators, and communities believe that preserving funding for before and after-school programs will help to ensure that children in Michigan, especially those at-risk, do not fall through the cracks.

“ Quality before and after-school programming improves student academic achievement, empowers families and communities, and reduces school violence. Only together, through the support of our schools and communities in a non-partisan manner, will we succeed.”
The purposes of the 21st CCLC program, managed by the Michigan Department of Education, are:

• Provide opportunities for academic enrichment, including tutorial services to help all students, especially those who attend low-performing schools, to meet state and local performance standards in core academic subjects, such as reading and mathematics;
  
• Offer students a broad array of additional services, such as youth development activities, drug and violence prevention programs, counseling programs, art, music, and recreation programs, technology education programs, and character education programs that are designed to reinforce and complement the regular academic program of participating students; and
  
• Offer families of students served by community learning centers opportunities for literacy and related educational development.

“ Law enforcement experts around the country agree the prime time for juvenile-rated crime is from 3 to 8 p.m.,” Governor Granholm said. “After school programs that extend the school day into this high-risk time reduce the probability for students to fall through the cracks.”

Parents continue to be the strongest and most consistent supporters of before and after-school programs throughout the state and nation, said Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Watkins.

“ Research clearly indicates that whether parents have children either approaching before and after-school age or beyond, they recognize the positive impact that these types of programs have on the youth of our communities,” Watkins said. “We have proof-positive evidence that these types of programs work to improve the quality of education in our neighborhood public schools.”

Watkins also indicated that the goals of the 21st CCLC program were in direct alignment with the State Board of Education’s goal of improving academic achievement in all schools, especially those that are underperforming.

“ The State Board’s Integrating Schools and Communities Task Force’s recommendations, developed last year, strongly encourages state and local support of quality before and after-school programming,” said State Board of Education President Kathleen Straus. “Michigan is positioned to be the nation’s leader with these important initiatives.”
Although the federal government has supported before and after school programming for several years, this is the first time that states have been able to conduct competitive grant programs and award the dollars to best practice sites across the state.

Priorities for the grant awardees (see attached grantees list) were given to those programs that primarily serve students that attend schools with high concentrations of poor students, giving priority to applicants serving children in low-performing schools.

The 21st CCLC Grant Program began with an appropriation in the United States Department of Education budget in 1997 of $1 million, with the first programs opening in 1998.

Of the $1 billion appropriation as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 in federal FY 2002, $325 million will flow to the state on a formula basis for the competitive awards.

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