It’s Official: After School Funding Restored

For several weeks we've been following the campaign to restore funding for 88 after school programs throughout New York City. Today, we heard from the Educational Alliance, which led the campaign, that the programs will, in fact, be fully funded in the coming year. Mayor Bloomberg planned to cut the programs in the face of a large budget shortfall, but in the past week he agreed to restore 80-percent of the money devoted to the community-based programs. The rest of the money will come from the federal stimulus fund. There's still concern that the programs could once again be in jeopardy in future years, but for now, the organizations affected (and the kids) can celebrate a hard fought victory. See our previous coverage of this story, including a video of a big rally at City Hall, here.