Carrion Wants Youth Programs Reworked

The president of the Bronx, Adolfo Carrion, a likely mayoral candidate, is stepping into the education fracas with a new report that has him imagining a reworking of City Hall's youth programs yesterday.

Noting a 20% rise in the number of minors arrested between 2002 and 2006, the report examines the city's spending on youth programs, finding a wide gap between the amount the city spends on after-school programs for high school students and the amount it dedicates to handling juvenile delinquents.

The average after-school program costs $2,000 a student; incarcerating a single teenager, the report says, costs an average of $170,000.

"I think the math is pretty straightforward and simple," Mr. Carrion said, calling for an increase in funding for after-school programs and a new Department of Education tsar to handle them. Mr. Carrion said he did not intend the argument as a criticism of Mayor Bloomberg.

Instead, he borrowed Mr. Bloomberg's idea of focusing on accountability, arguing that an increase in programming should be accompanied by tough standards.

He said the programs should be graded as schools are, using "outcome" measurements such as attendance figures, math and reading scores, and participants' delinquency records.