Children’s Educational and Safety Programs at Risk
(SACRAMENTO, CA.) – Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia formally submitted a request to Senate and Assembly leadership today to increase the State’s After School Education and Safety Program (ASES) funding by $54 million in 2015/2016 and raise the daily rate from $7.50 per student to $8.50 per student. The funding request would allow the programs to keep their doors open and deliver expanded learning activities to low-income students.
“As a product of the after school program, my goal is to ensure that disadvantaged communities continue to have access and vital educational and safety programs to protect our children and keep them off the streets,” stated Assemblymember Garcia. “Without this additional funding request, some of the district’s Afterschool Educational and Safety programs are in jeopardy of being eliminated.” stated Assemblymember Garcia.
According to the California AfterSchool Network (CAN), there are 97 elementary-middle schools in the 56th State Assembly District that are eligible for the ASES program but due to the budget short fall, only 80 of the schools actually receive funding.
In 2002, the citizens of California passed Proposition 49 which provides a continuous appropriation of $550 million to sustain the ASES programs at over 4,000 schools which serves more than 400,000 students across the state. Since then, the Proposition 49 funding level has remained the same since Fiscal Year 2006/2007. The submitted request would also establish an annual cost of living adjustment beginning in the 2017/2018 fiscal year.
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Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) serves as the Chairperson of the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy. He represents the 56th district, which comprises the cities and communities of Blythe, Brawley, Bermuda Dunes, Calexico, Calipatria, Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, El Centro, Holtville, Imperial, Indio, Mecca, Oasis, North Shore, Salton Sea, Thermal, Thousand Palms, and Westmorland.
