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The election is over, and now we know who will be holding various positions in our cities, counties and states. As advocates, it is important for us to hold the newly elected to the promises they made as candidates during the campaign season. Otherwise, progress for our issue will be slow to non-existent. States and localities across the country have proposed or established several different policies that have been instrumental in supporting afterschool access. The Afterschool Alliance has compiled many of those examples for you here to use as a guide as you work with other policy advocates and with policymakers to develop and implement ideas for establishing and sustaining afterschool for all in your community.
Legislation
Several states have legislation that establishes a sound base for afterschool access, quality, funding and long-term sustainability. How can you go about developing a proposal for legislative action in your state? The Alliance has developed a template for a legislative proposal. In addition to sample language, this template asks key questions and raises key points you and other advocates will need to consider and agree upon as you create your legislation and before you seek a legislative sponsor.
Michigan:
The legislation that created the Michigan After School Initiative (MASI) came from advocates who wanted to ensure Michigan had a clear mechanism for addressing afterschool issues. The legislative language spells out how advocates and state agencies would work collaboratively.
Maryland:
Maryland adopted legislation creating the Maryland After School Opportunity Fund. The statute created several key points:
- Interagency task force with top executive branch leadership
- Commitment to new funds for afterschool
- Comprehensive examination of the issue
- Regular reporting intervals
- Local implementation from county-based committees
- Advisory committee
- Agency authorization to manage the process
New Jersey:
Executive Order #117 established New Jersey After 3, which is modeled after the successful system developed by The After School Corporation (TASC) and funded by Open Society Institute, a program of George Soros. The governor announced the creation of New Jersey After 3 in his 2003 State of the State speech.
Today, I am proposing a new partnership among the State, the private sector, and the many dedicated education and community providers. A partnership that will work together to fund and operate a system of after-school programs across the state. New Jersey After 3 will be the first state-sponsored, non-profit corporation anywhere in America to take on the after-school challenge. I will need this Legislature's help, but I am going to challenge us to have 20,000 children enrolled in after-school activities in the next school year and that will build a better New Jersey.
New Jersey After 3 was formed with highly visible community, state and business leaders. $15 million in initial funding was allocated to this intermediary. Today, they manage funding that supports 32 programs at 66 schools, serving 11,171 students. (Specific references are found on page 25 of the linked PDF, with budget comparison from FY 2004 and FY 2005 on pages 42 and 43.)
State Budget Process
Sometimes it is not necessary to draft a piece of legislation. Sometimes it’s possible to get state agency officials, the budget committee or the chief executive to include special appropriation language to support afterschool. For more information on influencing the budget process, the Afterschool Alliance has a tool that describes the average state’s budget process and points out some opportunities in the process where advocates have a good chance to make a difference. In addition, two state case studies (New Mexico and Kansas) detail what was involved in their budget processes that expanded afterschool funding. You can also look at the New Jersey After 3 legislation above. If there’s a lesson that is universal among these examples, it is this: Take advantage of opportunities that present themselves AND develop champions among elected officials because they can influence legislation and budget decisions in ways you cannot.
Executive Branch Task Forces
Governors have considerable authority to create commissions, task forces, study committees or advisory groups on any topic. Some have created a commission of community leaders to draft policy recommendations and budget proposals for a topic of importance. Others have created a sub-cabinet group of state officials that concentrate on an issue.
There are strengths and weaknesses inherent in any one approach. We will discuss some of the major pros and cons of these approaches to give you guidance in your policy pursuits.
Commission on Afterschool:
If a commission is created by executive order, its membership will be officially appointed by the mayor or governor. If it is created by statute, the statute will designate the makeup of the committee’s membership. Either way, a commission is required to address policy questions put to it by the executive and/or the legislature.
Benefits:
- The issue receives a focus it probably does not receive in any one department that already funds afterschool.
- The issue can get the broad perspective within state government that it requires.
- Key department specialists and outside experts or constituency perspectives can be brought together to examine and develop policy proposals for consideration by policymakers.
- Having staff support from the executive branch or legislative branch brings more-professional quality to the resulting report and recommendations.
- If commission members are well-respected, well-known leaders in the community with political importance, their participation could lift the issue of afterschool to a new level of visibility and priority.
Drawbacks:
- The existence of a commission report does not mean that its recommendations will be adopted by the sponsoring policymakers, and commission members may not agree with advocates on which policies are the most important.
- It may take more effort from advocates. Advocates will want to add this commission to their advocacy agenda to try and educate its members on the needs of the children, families and afterschool providers. However, this work will have to be added on to the outreach advocates already do to the primary policymakers who hold decision-making authority (state legislators, cabinet secretaries etc).
- The commission may delay action on the topic of afterschool while it does its work. (However, it can also be a vehicle to develop consensus among the stakeholders and minimize disagreements in the future, thus streamlining implementation.)
Illinois Study Resolution
Illinois’ advocates pushed through a resolution, passed unanimously in the State Legislature and signed by the Governor, creating the Illinois After-School Initiative Task Force. The resolution prescribed the task force’s membership and called for key state agencies to work together and with community representatives to research the need for afterschool programs and funding strategies to meet that need.
Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care
The legislation that created a new cabinet-level agency, the Department of Early Education and Care, also created the Commission on Early Education and Care. Passed in 2004 and signed by Governor Romney, the legislation mandates that the board include members who represent business, labor, parents/consumers, providers and teachers, all of whom are appointed by the governor. This commission is just now getting under way in its investigation of how to address the needs of children for preschool to older children with care needs.
Governors’ Children’s Cabinets
Some governors have created Children’s Cabinets. These special cabinets involve bringing cabinet secretaries, who run a state’s various agencies, together to specifically discuss and focus on the needs of children. Here’s an excerpt from the New Hampshire Kids Cabinet, which was launched in 2001 by then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen. They looked at the following as their charge:
- Improving the quality, affordability and availability of child care.
- Improving the quality, affordability and availability of after-school care.
- Increasing the number of children who have health coverage.
- Reducing the rates of youth substance abuse and sexual activity.
- Helping parents help their children through parent-support activities.
Members of the New Hampshire Kid’s Cabinet included the commissioners of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Employment Security, Safety and Corrections; the attorney general; the coordinator of the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency; the adjutant general; and the administrative justice of the District and Municipal courts.
Benefits:
- The governor can create this without any legislative action.
- It creates an institutional basis for issues to be explored, considered and addressed.
- The cabinet members have the staff support to focus and collaborate through the governor’s office on one key policy focus – children’s needs.
- Without the need for a crisis, the agencies are brought together to consider creative approaches, joint strategies and improvements to government responses to children.
- Cabinet secretaries have administrative rulemaking authority, so action could take place at this level.
Drawbacks:
- Governors change. Without statutory backing, the next governor can choose not to have a Children’s Cabinet.
- Administrative rulemaking may occur as a result of these meetings, therefore advocates may need to include this policy path to their policy development/monitoring activities.
Other states’ Children’s Cabinets:
New Mexico
Maine
Advisory Committees
California
To establish a more formal mechanism for providers in the field to be heard by policymakers in the Department of Education and other state agencies, the California Legislature established the Advisory Committee on Before and After School Programs. The legislation requires the appointment of afterschool providers who represent various types of programs, including rural and urban programs, middle and high schools, and large and small schools. Members were appointed in 2006, and the committee is now up and running.
Minnesota
Minnesota created a non-governmental commission to establish a credible basis for action, but not using the typical political track. The Minnesota Commission on Out-of-School Time is an action project of the President’s Initiative on Children, Youth, and Families at the University of Minnesota. It is managed by The Children, Youth, and Family Consortium.
Ballot initiatives
Sometimes it is necessary to go directly to voters to get new initiatives approved. Some states allow ballot initiatives on questions of program creation and funding. Putting forth a ballot initiative is like running a political campaign, and it requires time, money and volunteers. The National Women’s Law Center brief on ballot initiatives gives a comprehensive discussion of the pros and cons of this strategy. To learn about the laws governing ballot initiatives in your state, visit the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center’s website. Their 2005-2006 Initiative Map details filing deadlines, the number of signatures required and other details for each of the 50 states.
The story of Seattle’s Education Levy is a good case study of what a community can do. This initiative, first passed in 1990 and renewed in 1997 and 2004, has been a source of funding for early childcare, out-of-school time and youth development programs. Voters must continually approve the funding because of a seven-year sunset clause, and advocates must undertake the effort to maintain the program and influence decisions for future programming. The implementation of the funds in 2005 and beyond have become more oriented toward education goals. Click here for a summary of the measure and here for a PowerPoint presentation on the measure.
California
California’s Proposition 49 is the most well-known ballot initiative supporting expansion of afterschool programs. For more information, read the Afterschool Alliance’s "Winning Combinations: The Passage of Proposition 49." This paper offers a look at the factors leading up to California's Proposition 49 and the key elements to the initiative's success.
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