Funding freeze to affect Missouri’s after-school programs
Keriana Gamboa
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Local after-school organizations are raising alarms about the Education Department’s plan to withhold nearly $7 billion in funds for the next fiscal year.
Those funds include money for programs such as the Boys and Girls Club.
If the funding is not released, Boys and Girls Clubs across the country could face widespread consequences, including summer camp closures, staff layoffs and the potential permanent shutdown of hundreds of locations in the coming weeks, the organization says.
“Our Club remains fully committed to providing the same impactful and critical services that our youth and families count on every day. We will not stop doing whatever it takes to build great futures for all youth in our community,” The Boys and Girls Clubs of Columbia and Jefferson City said in an online post.
Program leaders are urging the public to contact their members of Congress and ask them to push the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Education to release these funds immediately.
The Boys and Girls Club has posted a website that puts users in contact with U.S. senators immediately upon filling out the form.
The Department of Education’s decision this week to withhold $6.8 billion in federal K-12 funding for next year has sparked widespread concern among state education officials, school administrators and advocacy groups.
The funding loss will affect programs such as after-school activities, enrichment opportunities and language-learning services.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says those federal grants provide $64.3 million in funding to local education agencies and select state-level programs.
“DESE will continue to monitor the status of these grant programs and provide updates when they become available,” a department spokesperson said.
The Department of Education announced on Tuesday that several major federal education grants are still under review and have not yet been approved. Because of this delay, states have not received official notices or funding amounts for the upcoming year.
Programs affected serve nearly 1.4 million children and families nationwide. Among those, more than 220,000 are youth who attend one of 926 Boys and Girls Club sites.