Cost-Benefit of After-School Programs

�In a typical day in the United States, approximately 10 children die from being injured by firearms, 4,342 are arrested (186 for violent crimes), 2,911 drop out of school, 17,297 are suspended from school, 2,474 are abused or neglected, 3,300 run away from home, and 7, 700 teenagers become sexually active.� (Parenting The Strong-Willed Child, Rex Forehand & Nicholas Long, 2002, p.156)

�After-school programs are least available where they would do most to prevent crime and help kids get a solid start. With government support still so modest, research shows �the vast majority of after-school programs are funded through parent fees.� (54) The annual cost of school-age child care programs open 3 to 4 hours a day all year ranges from about $2,500 to about $4,000. (55) As a consequence, the programs primarily serve children from middle income families and are located in middle-class communities. (56) Families of all incomes are challenged by the afterschool hours. Many middle-income families scrape together funds to pay for after-school activities for their children and somehow manage to cobble together the necessary transportation arrangements to get children to and from these activities while the parents are working. Others are unable to do so. But the families least likely to be able to access afterschool programs are low- and moderate-income working families, especially those living in low-income neighborhoods (57). These are often the neighborhoods where crime is highest. [�] Protecting the public safety is the fundamental obligation of government. It is not expected to be a financially self-supporting operation. No one would suggest that we should have police preventing murders only if that activity produced enough savings to pay for itself. But even if that were the test, after-school programs would pass with flying colors. Investments in after-school programs, especially for the children most at risk of sliding into delinquency or becoming victims of crime, do pay for themselves, not only in lives saved but even in tax dollars saved. For example: The Quantum Opportunities after-school program produced benefits to recipients and the public of $3.04 for every dollar spent without even accounting for the savings from a six-fold drop in crime by boys participating in the program. (64) RAND Corporation researcher Peter Greenwood and his colleagues compared the cost-effectiveness of the Quantum Opportunities after-school program with that of California�s Three Strikes law, which requires mandatory prison sentences for persons convicted of three serious crimes. They concluded that, per dollar spent, Quantum Opportunities was over 5 times more effective at preventing serious crimes than the Three Strikes law. (65) The extra income earned and taxes paid by youths who become responsible citizens instead of criminals, and the contributions they make to their communities, would produce enormous additional benefits not even counted in RAND�s analysis. In the Canadian public housing project in which juvenile crime in the project dropped 75% over the 32 months the after-school program operated, the resulting savings to government agencies came to twice the program�s cost. (66) [�] The one thousand police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and crime victims who comprise Fight Crime: Invest in Kids have called on all public officials to protect the public safety by providing all at-risk children and teens access to quality afterschool programs. So have the 13,000 members of the National Sheriffs Association, the 290,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Major Cities (Police) Chiefs organization, the Police Executive Research Forum, the National District Attorneys Association, and law enforcement associations in Illinois, Iowa, Maine, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, Arizona and California. The nation�s largest organization of crime victims, the National Organization for Victim Assistance, has joined as well in the call for quality after-school programs. [�] It is time the leaders at the state and federal levels lay out a plan to eliminate that deficit. No responsibility of federal and state governments is more fundamental than protecting the public safety. That responsibility simply cannot be met without providing communities with the resources to assure that all families, especially those whose children are most at risk of going astray, have access to quality after-school programs. [�] For each high-risk youth prevented from adopting a life of crime, experts estimate the country saves between $1.7 and $2.3 million. � (http://www.fightcrime.org/reports/as2000.pdf)

From http://www.ed.gov/programs/21stcclc/index.html
Program Office: Academic Improvement and Teacher Quality Programs
CFDA Number: 84.287
Program Type: Formula Grants

� PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The 21st CCLC Program is a key component of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. It is an opportunity for students and their families to continue to learn new skills and discover new abilities after the school day has ended. Congress has appropriated $993.5 million for afterschool programs in Fiscal Year (FY) 2003. The focus of this program, re-authorized under Title IV, Part B, of the No Child Left Behind Act, is to provide expanded academic enrichment opportunities for children attending low performing schools. Tutorial services and academic enrichment activities are designed to help students meet local and state academic standards in subjects such as reading and math. In addition 21st CCLC programs provide youth development activities, drug and violence prevention programs, technology education programs, art, music and recreation programs, counseling and character education to enhance the academic component of the program. About 6,800 rural and inner-city public schools in 1,420 communities--in collaboration with other public and non-profit agencies, organizations, local businesses, post-secondary institutions, scientific/cultural and other community entities--are now participating as 21st Century CLCs. [..] [2001-2005] State tables [for the U.S. Department of Education] are available for FY 2001 through the FY 2005 President's Budget. [at http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/statetables/index.html] These tables show FY 2004 Final Allocations for the following programs: ESEA Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, Reading First State Grants, Even Start, Neglected and Delinquent State Agency Program, Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, Mathematics and Science Partnerships, Educational Technology State Grants, State Grants for Innovative Programs, State Assessments, FIE Comprehensive School Reform, Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants, Education for Homeless Children and Youth, Language Acquisition State Grants, Migrant State Agency Program�

"In 1996 Steven R. Donziger as president of the non-profit National Criminal Justice commission, published a two-year study called The Real War on Crime. It describes how crime has become good business, for if growth rates continue apace for the next few years, by the year 2020, our prison population will total 10 million [in the U.S.] and more than six out of ten African-American men will be in prisons. (In comparison, Canada has roughly the same crime rate but only one fifth the prison population.) [�] The economic well being of a large number of people is tied to the growth of the prison industry and to the existence of crime itself... need only look at the many depressed areas competing for new prisons and the jobs they bring to understand this phenomenon. [...] money is then siphoned away from education, the best crime-prevention measure." (p.13) (Myth America: Democracy vs. Capitalism, William Boyer, 2003)

Remedial costs are exhorbitant, to say the least, prevention is key. Windows of opportunity, come and go, in the blink of an eye. In the United States, Senator "Kerry advocates increased spending for Head Start and early childhood education programs. He says it makes sense to spend $10,000 or $11,000 on such programs rather than spending $75,000 a year to keep a juvenile in prison..." (Associated Press, http://www.news24houston.com/content/headlines/?ArID=32693&SecID=2,7/17/2004)

After School Programs - health benefit
After School Programs - cost benefit

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