Bloomberg Announces Expansion Of City After-School Programs

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Mayor Bloomberg yesterday took on another of his Democratic opponent’s top priorities, announcing a major expansion and reorganization of afterschool programs in New York City.


“Kids don’t stop learning after 3 p.m.,” Mr. Bloomberg said, standing in a Red Hook public school. “And we shouldn’t stop trying to teach and guide them.”


There have been free and low-cost after-school programs in the city for decades. In fact, the Democratic mayoral nominee, Fernando Ferrer, often credits an after-school program,Aspira, for turning him on to public service and introducing him to his wife, Aramina. During the Democratic primary, Mr. Ferrer said that as mayor he would serve 100,000 more city children in after-school programs.


Mr. Bloomberg announced yesterday that he would change the structure and quantity of the city’s after-school offerings – and even the name of the programs. Henceforth, they will be called “out of school time”so that they can encompass weekends and vacations in addition to weekday afternoons.


The mayor said that when he came into office, the city was financing hundreds of programs but didn’t know how many there were, how much they were costing, or whether they were achieving good results.


“This is a system that has developed over the years, willy-nilly,and there was no coordination, so there were neighborhoods that were not served, there was no coordination,” he said. “We didn’t know whether or not the programs were really doing what they were doing. We were funding them and other private organizations were funding them, and nobody knew whether we were getting something valuable.”


Until this year, there were about 100 after-school programs administered by the Administration of Children’s Services. The Department of Youth and Community Development also sponsored occasional programs for children.


Starting this year, the city has com bined the offerings under one umbrella and increased the number of programs to about 550. The programs now serve 47,000 children; next year, that number will increase to about 65,000.


Over three years, the program will cost $200 million, which is being reallocated from other projects.


An additional $12 million grant from the Wallace Foundation will pay for better coordination and attendance tracking.


Even before Mr. Bloomberg entered P.S./M.S. 27 early yesterday, the Democratic State Committee sent an e-mail to reporters attacking Mr. Bloomberg for setting foot inside a school.


“Bloomberg can make all the excuses in the world and cling to technicalities all he wants, but New Yorkers know hypocrisy when they see it,” the state Democratic chairman, Herman “Denny”Farrell, said. “Just like when Bloomberg said others can’t take tobacco money but it turns out he had done the same, this is a classic example of the billionaire thinking he’s better than everyone else.”


The Democratic mayoral nominee, Fernando Ferrer, came under fire recently for speaking to a group of high school students.


Under Department of Education rules, political candidates are not allowed to campaign in public schools within 60 days of elections. They are allowed to campaign if it is part of their other responsibilities, though, and Mr. Bloomberg claimed yesterday that he was fully entitled to do his job as mayor.


“Look, I am not going to walk away from doing what I was hired to do, and that’s run city government and improve the school system,” he said. “This is a government event.”


Mr. Bloomberg added that while Mr. Ferrer addressed 17- and 18-year-old students, he was announcing a government plan at a school that serves elementary and middle school students.


“We’re not here with voting age students where I’m asking them for their votes,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “So it isn’t exactly the same thing.”


Later in the day, the Ferrer campaign attacked Mr. Bloomberg for taking on yet another of Mr. Ferrer’s issues only weeks before the election.


“Today Mike Bloomberg acknowledged that reform of after-school programs ‘has been long overdue’ – we couldn’t agree more! But Mike Bloomberg should finish what he promised – not just put a new bow on another failure,” a Ferrer spokeswoman, Christy Setzer, said.


The New York Sun

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