FOR RELEASE: Contact: David Thomas (202)401-1576
Erica Lepping (202)401-3026
June 17, 1998
PRESIDENT CLINTON ANNOUNCES NEW
21st CENTURY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS
President Clinton today announced the award of $40 million in new grants to 98 communities to establish high quality after-school programs nationwide. The centers will provide expanded learning opportunities to children outside of regular school hours.
The 21st Century Community Learning Centers programs will enable schools to stay open longer, providing a safe haven for children, intensive tutoring in basic skills, drug and violence prevention counseling, and opportunities to participate in supervised recreation, chorus, band and the arts, technology education programs and services for children and youth with disabilities.
"From every state in the nation, from large cities to small rural areas, parents, teachers and children say they need high quality before- and after-school care programs like these," the President said. "With these grants, 315 schools can now stay open longer to better serve their children and communities."
Before making the 98 new grants, ED received nearly 2,000 applications, and, with the support of the C.S. Mott Foundation, provided regional workshops for more than 5,000 potential applicants.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, recent studies show that adolescents who are unsupervised after school are more likely to use alcohol and other drugs. Studies by the FBI and youth-advocacy groups have found that the peak hours for juvenile crime and victimization are from 2 to 8 p.m. -- hours when youth are most often without supervision.
In response to these statistics, the President has proposed $200 million in his fiscal year '99 budget request, now being considered by Congress, to expand the program to approximately 4,000 schools to serve up to a half-a-million children per year.
"The need and demand for these after-school programs is tremendous," said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. "We had hundreds of additional excellent applications that could serve thousands more children, but we simply could not afford to fund them. I hope Congress will see the immediate need to expand this program and provide additional funds to ensure that more high-quality after-school centers will be available in the future. "
The 315 school-community partnerships receiving new grants are located in 36 states. The grants will range in size from $47,600 to $2.3 million a year for three years. Grantees will also get training, technical assistance and support from the C.S. Mott Foundation, which has pledged to provide $55 million over the next five years to support the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program and its grantees.
During his announcement of the after-school grant awards, President Clinton also released a new, U.S. Department of Education-U.S. Department of Justice report, Safe and Smart: Making After-School Hours Work for Kids, which presents research and examples illustrating the potential of quality after-school activities to keep children safe, out of trouble, and learning, available on-line at www.ed.gov or by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN.
Note to Editors: A map illustrating the distribution of grantees follows; media wishing to receive specific grantee descriptions and grantee contacts can find them on-line at www.ed.gov or by calling the press contacts listed above.
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