Policy & Budget
FY2010 Massachuestts State Budget Highlights - Children and Youth Funding
Governor Patrick signed the FY2010 State Budget on June 31st, 2009 with nearly $150 million in vetoes. Significantly, over $7 million in vetoes targeted education spending, including cutting the $250,000 Youth Mentoring Matching Grant Program (Line Item 7061-9634). This was the only direct service funding for at-risk youth eliminated by Patrick's vetoes. While the state legislature has promised to override many of Patrick's vetoes, continued declining state revenues is making decisions difficult. Patrick has warned that any veto overrides will be met with cuts in other parts of the budget.
Overall, the budget includes $2.4 billion in cuts to health care, public education, human services, public health, public safety protection, environmental protection and nearly all other areas of state government. Programs serving the needs of families, children and youth were not spared cuts, but in the end many of the programs BOSTnet and our partners have advocated for over the past few years have continued to receive support from our allies in the state legislature:
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
7061-9611 – After School and OST Quality Grants $2 million
7061-9412 – Expanded Learning Time Grants $15.7 million
7027-0019 – Schools-to-Careers Grants $2 million
7061-9626 – YouthBuild Program Grants $1.5 million
7061-9634 – Mentoring Matching Grants $250,000
Department of Early Education and Care
3000-3050 – Supportive Child Care Services $77.8 million
3000-4050 – TANF Related Child Care $116.2 million
3000-4060 – Low Income Child Care $273.6 million
3000-6000 – Quality Supports/Professional Development $14 million
Department of Public Health
4590-1506 – Youth Violence Prevention $2 million
4530-9000 – Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program $3.1 million
Executive Office of Health and Human Services
4000-0112 – Youth At-Risk Matching Grants $1.5 million
Executive Office of Public Safety
8100-0111 – Shannon Grants (youth violence prevention) $6.5 million
* The DEEC Quality Supports line item 3000-6000 is a consolidation of Accreditation support, Community Partnerships for Children (CPCs) Local Planning and Coordination funds and Professional Development funds (3000-6050). The FY10 SWM budget includes nearly $1 million made available through ARRA stimulus funds for quality improvement. It also includes $575 k in federal stimulus funds to improve the quality of infant and toddler care.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
As Massachusetts prepares for the highly anticipated federal stimulus money to flow into the state it is clear that this money will carry with it an unprecedented level of accountability. According to Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) Commissioner Sherri Killins and her staff, this will be the most highly restricted and regulated money that states have ever received from the Federal Government. It will be even more so for Massachusetts that was selected as one of 16 states nationwide to be intensely scrutinized on a monthly basis. All funding must be closely tied to federal requirements and goals. Funding will be available for two years and must be invested quickly to stimulate, create and protect jobs. The money must expand funding in programs rather than fill budget gaps and it must assist those most impacted by the recession.
Early Education and Care
Through the Child Care Development Block Grants, the EEC will receive approximately $24 million in stimulus funding. The department is currently working with its board, advisory committee and other stakeholders to develop a plan for this money that must be submitted to the feds by July 1, 2009. Of the $24 million, approximately $4 million is targeted for quality improvement initiatives ($1.1 million must go to infant/toddler programs), and $20 million is slated for access. According to Commissioner Killins, the EEC Board is very supportive of targeting stimulus money to quality improvement initiatives that have a very clear, short-term goal, such as moving a number of programs or professionals toward accreditation or professional credential. BOSTnet, in partnership with AchieveBoston is advocating the department to invest in expanding the School Age and Youth Development (SAYD) Credential, and provide more flexible scholarship money for school age OST educators to engage in professional development opportunities, including fee-based training workshops, professional conferences, college courses and credential.
Elementary and Secondary Education
As of April 1, Governor Patrick has allocated over $600 million in ARRA funds for education, including $168 million from State Fiscal Stabilization Funds to insure foundation-level funding in FY2010 in all school districts; $280 million in IDEA Grants to support special education; and $162 million in Fiscal Stabilization Funds for higher education. In total, the state will receive over $994 million in State Fiscal Stabilization Funds over the next two years. Additional funds for elementary and secondary education include $163 million in Title 1 funding; over $10 million in Education al Technology Grants; nearly $300 million in special education; and access to a range of federal grant opportunities. Obviously, this is a substantial amount of assistance that will have a significant impact on education programs over the next two years.
Labor and Workforce Development
The ARRA will provide over $90 million in recovery funding to support labor and workforce development through state programming and the 16 Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) across the state. On March 27th, Governor Patrick announced commitments of $30 million over two years to fund 10,000 summer jobs for youth in 60 cities across the state. This funding source—combined with summer worker orientation training—could be used to place motivated young people in hundreds of summer youth programs in Massachusetts to improve organizations’ ability to run high quality summer learning programs. Moreover, there is over $10 million in ARRA funding through the Workforce Investment Act Title 1 Adult stream to support local employment and training activities for low-income adult individuals with barriers to employment. An additional $21 million will be available for dislocated workers for employment and training services. Currently, BOSTnet is working with its partners in AchieveBoston to find ways to tap these funds to expand the current Professional Youth Work Credential through the P-21 Initiative of Commonwealth Corporation to provide education and professional development options for individuals interested in entering youth work.
Information about these funds and the restrictions and requirements that will be placed on them is still very dynamic. As we learn more about specific opportunities for out-of-school time providers we will let you know.
Also, read how the EEC views the funding in their Spring newsletter.
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FY2009
Advocacy Day 2008 (wrap-up article)
FY2009 State Budget Highlights
ASOST- Report Overview
FY2009 9c Cuts
Advocacy Day 2007 (wrap-up article)
ASOST Report
2007 Budget Fact Sheet
Afterschool Advocacy Q & A
Oct. 2006 Regional Meeting Overview
Meeting Highlights & Notes
