Today the
Education and Labor Committee Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education held a hearing concerning President Bush's proposal to slash $281 million from funding for after school programs, which would force hundreds of thousands of children out of these safe, effective programs.
| Subcommittee Chairman Dale Kildee: "By the administration's own calculations, its proposal could result in more than one million fewer students receiving services... I had hoped that the president's final education budget would be an improvement over his previous ones, but it's hard to see anything positive about increases for Title I and special education that don't even keep up with inflation or to see cuts to drug and violence prevention and after school programs, eliminating educational technology and career and technical education, and divisive private school and after school voucher proposals." |
| Ladonna Gamble, Bridges to the Future: "I've worked as a front line staffer and administrator at an afterschool site, and now I administer Flint's 21st Century Community Learning Centers programs. I see the difference afterschool makes for children and families. I'm here today to respond from the field to the President's proposal to revamp the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative into a voucher program, as well as his proposed budget cut for afterschool. I think both are very bad ideas... that would have a disastrous effect on afterschool programs in Flint, across Michigan, and around the nation." |