The Center for American Progress has analyzed President Obama’s education budget for 2011 in great detail. The center’s analysts had this to say about the budget’s community initiatives:
The president also proposes to support community schools under a reformed CCLC program. The Center for American Progress discussed the benefits of school-based services offered by community schools in a recent report. In addition, the proposed $210 million in funding for Promise Neighborhoods will allow for the replication of the highly successful Harlem’s Children’s Zone in communities across the country. The president is right to prioritize funding for school-level reforms that facilitate access to important social and health services for students and families.
The federal education department issued a press release yesterday explaining President Obama’s 2011 budget request. Here’s the budget proposal for the Promise Neighborhoods program, which received $10 million in the 2010 budget:
$210 million for Promise Neighborhoods, a new competitive grant program modeled on the Harlem Children’s Zone that combines comprehensive social services with school improvements in order to transform whole neighborhoods.
In Sunday’s Washington Post, a lengthy story about the Harlem Children’s Zone and President Obama’s plan to replicate it:
Canada was raised poor in the South Bronx and went on to earn a graduate education degree from Harvard. Years ago, he grew frustrated that his successful after-school program was not decreasing Harlem’s tally of high school dropouts, juvenile arrests and unemployed youths. He set out to devise an encompassing program to “move the needle” and improve the lives of poor children in a mass, standardized, reproducible way.
Now the Obama administration seeks to replicate Canada’s model in 20 cities in a program called Promise Neighborhoods and has set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget for planning. President Obama has frequently singled out the Harlem Children’s Zone, and first lady Michelle Obama recently called Canada “one of my heroes.”
I gave a talk at the Education Writers Association conference in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, and two reporter/bloggers wrote about it. According to Primateyell:
Tough has some worries about cloning the Zone, including that local nonprofits may lack the strict accountability that characterized Canada and his programs, but he sounded largely excited about seeing the plan go forward in an era when big questions such as what makes a good teacher are dominating the education debate.
Tough realized what essential question his story would be organized around, he told EWA members: “Why is it that poor kids do so badly in school and life? And what can be done?” He said that the debates about education and poverty are beginning to merge, and for the better.
Tomorrow at about 12:30 pm, I’ll be on the Kojo Nnamdi show on WAMU public radio in Washington, D.C., talking about Barack Obama’s urban-policy plans and the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Jay Mathews, education columnist for the Washington Post, reviews “Whatever It Takes”:
Paul Tough has devoted several years to writing about poverty, but much of the time he is really writing about schools. This is apparent in his insightful book “Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America.” You don’t see the words “schools” or “education” in the title, but be assured this is one of the best books ever written about how poverty influences learning, and vice versa.
Discussing Whatever It Takes and the Harlem Children’s Zone with (from left) Robert Gordon, Roland Fryer and Geoffrey Canada at the Center for American Progress, Washington D.C., October 23, 2008.
