February 12, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has pledged to donate up to $55-million over the next five years to support the proposed expansion of a federal program to provide before- and after-school care for children.
The funds will be used to enhance the President’s 21st Century Community Learning Program, a five-year, $1-billion plan contained in the fiscal 1999 budget proposal that President Clinton sent to Congress last week.
The Community Learning Program, which is being tested in pilot projects this year, currently operates on a budget of $42-million, $2-million of which comes from Mott.
The foundation said its final decision on how much more to provide would depend on how much money, if any, Congress approved to expand the program.
The announcement of the Mott pledge, which occurred at a White House presentation last month, could not have come at a more inopportune time for the foundation. Few reporters who attended the event were there to hear about after-school programs.
Instead, they pressed the President to address rumors swirling around him that he had an affair with a former White House intern. At the end of the child-care presentation, Mr. Clinton issued a flat denial of the alleged relationship. It was the denial, rather than the child-care program, that received prominent coverage on television and in newspapers.
If the Clinton Administration can persuade Congress to expand the program by the full amount of its request, the program is expected to reach as many as 500,000 children each year.
The program allows schools to remain open after hours and offers students a variety of learning opportunities in computer skills, the arts, community service, and other areas. Mott says its money would be used primarily to provide training and other help to schools that receive grants.
For more information, contact Marianne Russell Kugler, program officer for education, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, 1200 Mott Foundation Building, Flint, Mich. 48502; (810) 238-5651; http://www.mott.org.
