Briget Louis dreaded the hours between the end of her son’s school day and the end of her workday.
The single mother regularly worked until 5 p.m. and couldn’t afford after-school child care. Her then 9-year-old hung out with friends after school until the sheriff’s office called last year to say the kids had started a brush fire.
She found the perfect solution at a federally funded after-school program with the Boys and Girls Club in West Palm Beach, which her son loves. But now such programs are on President Donald Trump’s proposed chopping block.
“What would I do next?” she said. “How can I manage my financial life, my career, be able to provide for him? If he’s not in a safe place, how can you do that as a single parent?”
Her son is one of about 8,000 children in South Florida attending federally funded after-school programs for children of low income families. About 7,300 students also attend during summer and almost 1,500 attend during holidays, according to Florida Department of Education data.
The Trump administration said the after-school program lacks strong evidence that it improves student achievement and cutting such programs would save $1.2 billion. The administration’s proposal seeks to cut $9 billion total from the education budget.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told senators at a recent Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that some of the programs the administration seeks to cut “are duplicative, some of them are ineffective and some of them could better be supported by state local or philanthropic efforts.”
But it’s likely to be a hard sell.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said that the cuts would be “all but impossible to get through this committee.”
The most recent U.S. Department of Education assessment concluded that the program “touches students’ lives in ways that will have far reaching impact.”
Local programs reported gains among most students in some areas but not all.
At two Palm Beach County Boys and Girls Club locations, including where Louis sends her son, most elementary students who regularly attended in 2015 to 2016 school year improved their English, math and science grades. A minority of them, however, improved on state tests.
Other such programs, at Piper, McArthur and Plantation high schools, reported that most students who regularly attended improved reading and science grades or maintained a “B” average. Also, more than half who enrolled to recover missing credits successfully did so. However, slightly less than half of the students who had poor school attendance records improved attendance.
Dozens of programs exist regionwide and they are all required to work to improve student academics and behavior, and parental involvement.
At the DeGeorge club, parents can take finance and health classes. Students get lessons along the lines of what they learned during the school day, organizers said. On a recent day, some older students listened to classical music and drew abstract pictures of mangoes.
Next door, younger kids made puzzles from Popsicle sticks and put them together. Outside, a group held magnifying glasses to the seeds in their hands. The gardens surrounding them bore kale, broccoli, bell peppers and other veggies the kids had planted.
The government grants the Boys and Girls Club of Palm Beach County $2.4 million to run programs countywide.
The federal grants also serve high school students who seek additional instruction.
Piper High in Sunrise houses one of Broward’s programs, where students learn a range of subjects long after the bell rings.
Frank Pinkney, who teaches students after school about entrepreneurship, said he’s watched students discover their passions through the post-school programming.
“If they’re not finding themselves here, they’ll find themselves something to get into on the streets,” Pinkney said, who has taught for 18 years.
Just one week after school ended this year, dozens of students returned for summer programming paid for by the federal grants. Some take art all day. Others, band.
“Just in the three days I’ve been here, I’ve been able to have better tone in my instrument,” said senior Kayla Sajous.
Meanwhile, a different group wrote code to build video games, another read and discussed current events and a third worked on computers to get credits needed for graduation.
“Not everybody can afford a computer at home, or internet,” said Lawren Gibbons, a senior. “But they can’t say they didn’t have help. The help’s here.”
Breakfast and lunch are must-haves, too. Assistant Principal Kenneth Walton said kids line up to eat before the doors open. They get the standard school meals, made to meet the same nutrition guidelines required during the school year.
These are the only meals some of these kids get, he said.
For others, the program may inspire less eating.
Joseph Geck, who just graduated from Piper High, said he began staying after school during his sophomore year to learn about nutrition, lift weights and run instead of going home and grabbing food.
He lost 35 pounds and gained a new confidence.
“On one hand, I see how this could cost a lot of money,” he said. “But I think kids our age need something to look forward to and something to keep us off the street.”
cmcglade@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4528 or Twitter @caitmcglade
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