Innovative Learning Solutions

Laurie Roberts’ Columns & Blog
(Column published June 27, 2009, The Arizona Republic) http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/LaurieRoberts/56351

So concerned are our leaders, in fact, that they took time away from other pressing matters of state this week to pass a bill aimed at protecting the little tykes.

Among other things, their bill would require a 24-hour cooling off period before a woman could get an abortion. It also would require that her doctor explain alternatives to abortion and it would allow her pharmacist to refuse to sell her emergency contraception.

“It is something Arizona women deserve,” Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said this week. “And besides that, it is something those babies deserve. That’s a live person.”

Doesn’t it just give you warm-fuzzies, the way this Legislature cares about kids? Who knew?

These, after all, are the same people who in the name of fiscal responsibility want to gut virtually every service the state provides to children. They’ve already cut basic cash assistance to poor families, which takes bread right out of the mouths of children. They’re already cut funding to Child Protective Services, which means that some reports of abuse or neglect are now just, well, ignored. (Technically, the head of DES made the cuts to CPS after the Legislature ordered a lump-sum reduction of her budget but our leaders didn’t move to stop it so now they get to own it.)

They’ve already cut funding for food banks and domestic violence shelters and homeless shelters. They’ve already cut off rehabilitation services for certain sick kids, leaving parents to pick up the tab for life altering treatments that can cost up to $10,000 a month — or not, if their parents can’t afford it.

With more to come, if Republicans remain in their bunkers on this budget.

Take KidsCare. The Republicans want to cut back on health care for poor children. Oh, kids now covered would be able to continue with such luxuries as check-ups and doctor visits. But in the future, an estimated 25,000 children would be out of luck, according to Children’s Action Alliance. Up to now, any child in a family of four whose parents earned up to $848 a week – twice the poverty level — was covered. In the future, children whose parents earn the princely sum of $637 a week would be on their own.

If they’re abused, they may also be on their own. I already mentioned that CPS caseworkers no longer check all reports of abuse. Even if they could, Republicans have proposed disarming them anyway, shredding programs aimed at protecting kids and getting their parents off drugs.

And for those children who qualify for state help so that they get decent child care while their parents work at low-income jobs? More than 4,000 of them are on a “waiting list”. It’s not really a waiting list, though, because the wait will never end. Instead, their mothers pass them around or leave them with the live-in boyfriend or hey, just quit work and go on welfare.

The Republicans’ idea of a budget is a disaster for the most vulnerable among us.

“If this budget were to become reality we will see more and more homeless families in the streets, we will see bigger crowds in our emergency rooms because families have nowhere else to go,” Dana Naimark, of the Children’s Action Alliance, told me. “Basically, we’re taking away all options including funding for food banks and shelters for homeless families and domestic violence victims. Every place you turn, we’ve taken away help … and I think we as a community will see it. We will actually see it with desperate families having nowhere to go.”

There is an alternative. With just three days left in the fiscal year, our leaders can finally emerge from their bunkers and fix this mess. (And no, by “fixing this mess” I don’t mean actually lowering taxes on this state’s wealthiest citizens via a flat income tax.) What they should do is put Gov. Jan Brewer’s three-year sales tax hike on the ballot straight up. It’s not a vote to raise taxes. It’s a vote to let the citizens of this state decide what sort of state we really are.

Before you fire up your e-mail to remind me that these people shouldn’t be having children, that they need to raise their own children, that the rest of us shouldn’t have to pay for their children, read this:

I agree with you.

But let’s remember who we’re talking about here. And who will be punished if we turn our backs.

Children.

These, too, are, as Pearce puts it, “live people”.

Or does the Legislature’s interest wane once they’re actually taken their first breath?

(Column published June 27, 2009, The Arizona Republic)

“The district is committed to provide proactive and meaningful activities and homework supervision for the students,” he told the board.

Superintendent Duane Noggle said the district was planning to offer an after-school program this year even if the district had stayed with a five-day school week. “We need to offer something for the children from 2-6 p.m. so their parents don’t have to pick them up at 2 p.m.,” he said.

Noggle said this program will include the after-school tutoring program the district had previously.

With no school on Fridays, he said the town’s Parks and Recreation Department is planning to offer Friday activities for the children. Also, Grace Baptist Church will offer activities for children on Friday as well as five-day daycare.

Jason Kelly, Chino Valley’s Parks, Recreation & Senior Services interim director, said the town plans to offer a Fun Friday Youth Camp for elementary school and middle school children at the Chino Valley Community Center Park. “We felt it was our responsibility to provide worthwhile activities for our children on Friday when there is no school,” he said.

Some of the activities Parks and Rec plans to include are tutoring and mentoring, arts and crafts and other enrichment activities, and intramural leagues, running and biking.

Kelly said they are hoping to get members of the Chino Valley High School athletic teams to show children how to play soccer, football and basketball.

He also hopes to get a lot of parents involved in the youth camp. “The more help we get, the more children we can accommodate,” he said.

The CVUSD after-school care program, Muir said, is for kindergarteners through eighth-graders attending Del Rio, Territorial Elementary School and Heritage Middle School. The district plans to house the program at Del Rio and bus Territorial students to Del Rio.

Muir said the after-school care program will run from 2-6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The parents must pick up their children no later than 6 p.m., he said.

There will be no program when the schools are closed for holidays, snow days and school breaks, he said.

Muir said there will be a one-time $50 registration fee and a set weekly fee of $16 per student.

“This program is designed to be self-supporting based on student tuition collected, and will allow the district to provide services that only maintain salaries and expenses incurred in the program,” he said.

Muir stressed that the district is sensitive to the needs of its families and will provide proportional staffing based on student participation.

He said a program coordinator is essential, as is one aide per each 20 students.

“This will ensure that each student receives the attention they need to be successful,” Muir said.

The startup cost for the program, he said, is $8,542, based on 46 students participating.

Noggle said they need 48 students for the program to break even.

The board unanimously approved the new program and the coordinator position.

By Susan Gould
United Way of Racine County

Monday, June 22, 2009 12:37 AM CDT

Children spend 50 percent more time out of school than in it. Juvenile violence and crime are four times greater during the after-school hours, and youth are 37 percent more likely to become teen parents if they are not involved in structured after-school activities.

Racine has some major concerns regarding our youth, including a graduation rate of about 71 percent, the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the state and incidence of juvenile crime that results in more than 5,000 apprehensions each year.

What if we could keep kids safe, increase their reading and math scores, reduce childhood obesity and give them a positive sense of their own futures? What if there was a way to ensure job readiness, increase graduation rates and decrease juvenile crime or teen pregnancy? Well, “out-of-school time” programs that run after school, on weekends or during the summer give children and teens opportunities to learn and grow with positive, measurable results.

“Out-of-school time” refers to all the hours before school, after school, teacher workdays, school holidays, weekends and summers. These after-school opportunities generally refer to safe, structured programs that offer school-age children a range of activities or options for engagement. Most programs are designed to enhance learning and allow the youth to further develop academically, socially, emotionally and physically outside of the typical school day.

read more: http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2009/06/22/opinion/doc4a3f1843560b8808506934.txt