Urge Your Senator Cosponsor an Amendment to Raise Afterschool Funding

The Massachusetts State Senate is putting together their budget for FY 2020. This is your opportunity to make sure that Afterschool and Summer Learning programs are properly funded. Senator Brendan Crighton has filed Amendment 243 to the Afterschool and Out of School Quality Grants Line Item (7061-9611) to increase it to $4.72 million which would match the funding at the House proposed. Research shows that young people who attend quality afterschool and summer programs do better in school, have stronger relationships with adults and peers, and are able to close the persistent achievement gap that lower income Massachusetts’ kids experience if they are not in quality afterschool. Eliminating the achievement gap is the highest priority we can have in advancing Massachusetts education policy. Unfortunately, in 2017, there were more than 320,000 high needs children and youth in the Commonwealth without access to publicly funded afterschool programs. The ASOST-Q grant is the only statewide dedicated funding source for high quality afterschool and summer programming and, if we can get more Senators to sign on to Amendment 243 from Sen. Crighton, we will allow thousands more kids to have access to this critical afterschool learning. Fill out the information to the right to let your Senator know that you believe there should be more funding for afterschool to help the students and families of Massachusetts