Advocate for Fair Funding

	QUICK FACTS » In four out of five families, every adult works outside the home. » More than 14 million American kids have no adult supervision after school. » More than half of all teens in a recent survey said they would watch less TV and play fewer video games if they had other things to do after school.

What We Do

TASC advocates with policymakers and elected officials to shape policy and grow sustainable public funding for after-school and summer programs. Our goal is to achieve more equitable, efficient and sustainable support for programs and systems, and to meet the needs of millions of kids who have no access to high quality activities beyond the school day.

How We Do It

We build, lead and join in coalitions at the state and local level to advocate with policymakers and elected officials. We support the Afterschool Alliance, the leading national advocacy organization. We advise foundations, government agencies, educators and others who are working to make systems fairer and more efficient.

TASC and the New York State Afterschool Network led the way in New York State to establish a governor’s working group to coordinate the efforts of state agencies to move toward a unified system of after-school throughout the state.

Why We Do It

An estimated 400,000 kids in New York City and 15 million in the nation are shut out of programs beyond school hours. They lack opportunity to develop the interests that motivate them to stay in school. And unless they have access to after-school and summer programs that keep their kids safe, many parents simply can’t work 9-to-5 hours.

Beyond that, funding for after-school in New York City and state is unstable in the face of recession. This year, New York State proposed to cut after-school funding by 25 percent, which would have caused thousands of kids to lose programs.

TASC and our allies successfully advocated with the state to hold funding cuts to 10 percent. The state plugged those holes by finding innovative ways to use federal stimulus funds to meet essential needs such as summer jobs for chronically jobless teens. Stimulus funds will run out in two years. Before that happens, we’ve got to progress toward sustainable funding strategies.