“With respect to afterschool programs, President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget is a bitter
disappointment. This is more than a funding freeze; it is a setback. The President’s proposal to
divert funds from afterschool programs by putting them in competition for grants with the Full
Service Community Schools Program will effectively cut the funding available for the
afterschool programs that children and families across the nation rely upon.
This is the second budget the President has submitted that did nothing to fulfill his campaign
pledge to double spending for afterschool. Without the increase in funding that candidate
Obama promised for afterschool, millions of children will have no safe, supervised, educational
activities after the school day ends – and millions of working and job-seeking parents will go
without the care their children need. Inadequate afterschool funding puts millions of children at
risk for drugs and alcohol, gangs and other crime, teen pregnancy, and other unhealthy behaviors
every single weekday afternoon.
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