Historic Afterschool Funding Increase Approved by Congress and the President

From the Afterschool Alliance

Afterschool providers and advocates have reason to celebrate this holiday season! Congress had to make some very difficult spending decisions this year and despite cuts to some critical programs for kids - including level funding the Child Care and Development Block Grant - after months of receiving calls, emails and letters from the afterschool community, Congress and the President are giving the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) Program a badly needed and well deserved funding increase.

On December 26th, the President signed an omnibus spending bill that provides a $100 million increase for 21st CCLC for Fiscal Year 2008, putting the total funding at an all time high of $1.1 billion. To see how this funding increase will affect your state, click here.

Thanks to all of your hard work, an additional 100,000 kids will have access to high quality afterschool programs.

- The Afterschool Alliance Team