Breakfast Club Blog

The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is a curated space where bloggers from around the world contribute content on a continual basis about a variety of topics relevant to in and out-of-school time. The BOOST Breakfast Club blog is at the heart of an ongoing dialogue where expanded learning and education professionals share their personal thoughts and stories from the in and out-of-school time field. They also tell us what they ate for breakfast!

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Enjoy the brain food.

The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is Brain Food for In and Out-of-School Time Leaders!

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Investing in Quality With Increasing Costs

As after school leaders, we are used to begging and borrowing, making a lot out of a little, and operating at beyond peak levels of productivity to make our programs the best they can be for our students and their families. We want to get the most out of our budgets and that is a good thing—but there are limits. Our after school programs have evolved so much in the past decade. They have moved from programs that provide academic enrichment, homework support, active recreation, and clubs to even ...Read More

ASES Programs Caught in a Fiscal Squeeze

In November, 2002, California citizens passed Proposition 49, which requires the Legislature to annually appropriate not less than $550 million to the California Department of Education for the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program. The Proposition passed with a financial trigger that delayed the release of the appropriation until the 2006/07 fiscal year. The funding has been level since that time, unlike many other programs that were decimated during the recession, but despite its pr...Read More

The Unintended Impact of Minimum Wage Increases on After-School Programs

Minimum Wage Law I will assume that most of you reading this post, like me, applauded Governor Brown’s September, 2013, decision to sign into law a bill that will raise California’s minimum wage from $8 to $9 beginning on July 1, 2014, and then to $10 beginning on January 1, 2016. And I will also assume that most of you figured the primary beneficiaries of this decision would be minimum wage workers – like the folks who say “Welcome to Walmart” or “Do you want fries...Read More

Join the Discussion – Proposed Changes to 21st Century Community Learning Center Funding

As many of you have heard, the Partnership for Children & Youth (PCY) is putting together state legislation to make improvements to the 21st Century Community Learning Center program. The proposed changes are based on aspects of the current law that we’ve heard for many years create barriers or are difficult to administer in the field. Our goal is to make the funding easier to apply for and implement, and to be strategic about how we use federal funding in concert with our state after ...Read More

Protecting Proposition 49 Funding May Not Protect Providers

The section of California Education Code that establishes the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program describes its purpose as follows: “…to create incentives for establishing locally driven before and after school enrichment programs… that partner public schools and communities to provide academic and literacy support and safe, constructive alternatives for youth.” The majority of ASES programs operate according to partnership models in which a local education a...Read More