You mean it was all a waste?!?..my world is shattered..
Posted on 04/01/2015 8:40:36 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
Seems like $1.2 billion spent in America’s afterschool programs was a waste, at least that is what Mark Dynarski wrote this month for the Brookings Institute.
Dynarski outlined how spending has increased for afterschool programs since its inception and began with $40 million in funds in 1998. By 2002, Congress gave the program $1 billion in funding, so in four years, the program’s budget saw a 2,400% increase. But, was the large budget hike rationalized by good, measureable outcomes and improvements?
The author says no, and he was one of the researchers contracted by the Department of Education to figure that out back in 1999, when he worked for Mathematic Policy Research. Their research discovered, “the program didn’t affect student outcomes.”
But, did the Department of Education and Congress reduce spending? No. President George W. Bush proposed reducing funding by $400 million, but advocates for the program and the then-governor of California, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger pushed back and spending was left as it was, Dynarski noted.
A follow-up review in 2006 agreed with the 1999 study, and the Department of Education even agreed. An additional federal study “found no effects on academic outcomes” and their tutoring and academic support programs “did not improve academic outcomes.” In Washington, D.C., they spend $4,500 per student and the results were mixed: reading comprehension did not improve despite the program’s emphasis, but math skills improved. Overall, these programs spend about $600 per student per year.
The federal government rationalized its spending by surveying students on how afterschool programs helped them, which “hardly is a scientific basis for measuring program effects.” And, parents view it as a type of childcare, although it is a very expensive one for taxpayers. But, there is already a childcare program in place, which is a $5 billion grant called the “Child Care and Development Block Grant” that states receive.
Why don’t they put this money into midnight basketball. Sheesh.
call it what it is, free government paid for daycare.
You mean it was all a waste?!?..my world is shattered..
Whaddaya mean, “waste of money”?
The liberals who support it get to feel good about themselves as “good people”,
so it accomplished exactly what it was supposed to.
What you have to ask is whether or not that money was ever spent on worthwhile programs, or did it just find it’s way into new air-conditioned buses for the football players.
Remember, the mantra of all public school employees: We need to spend this money on SOMETHING, or else we’ll have to give it back!
And that’s all this really is, just like 4-year old kindergarten.
Charity with other peoples money..
...but the good intentions are priceless.
Cost effective?
how about tax effective?
the programs enable women to work. The taxes paid on the whole salary + the benefits paid to otherwise unemployable women care givers > the costs
Maybe I’m weird, but I could never wait until my kids got home from school at the end of the day.
and this is coming from Brookings, not Heritage or Cato.
Charity with other peoples money
There’s this nifty little word for that that makes liberals cringe.
It’s “THEFT”.
They are cost-effective for the government’s purpose which is to keep the children out of their parents’ control a bit longer and keep them in the institutional setting to get them used to being cogs of the state machine.
“They are cost-effective for the government’s purpose which is to keep the children out of their parents’ control a bit longer and keep them in the institutional setting to get them used to being cogs of the state machine.”
Folks, we have a
WINNER!
What we really need is economy type Cadillacs, for out of work, welfare recipients.
Think Obamaphone.
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