Weekly Media Roundup - August 31, 2011

Sen. Boxer Promotes After-School Programs (Fresno Bee, California)
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), one of the original sponsors of the Afterschool for America's Children Act (S. 1370), last week visited a Fresno elementary school to discuss the legislation and the importance of afterschool programs.  This bipartisan bill would reauthorize the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative and supports the innovative advances occurring in before school, afterschool and summer learning programs.  Learn more about the bill and how you can encourage your Senator to sign on here.

YMCA Offers After School Program (Rome Observer, New York)
The Rome Observer writes: “According to the Afterschool Alliance, a nonprofit public awareness advocacy organization, 15.1 million children in the United States are left unsupervised after 3 p.m.  In New York, 25 percent of children are left alone and responsible for taking care of themselves…after 3 p.m. is a time when youth are at a greater risk of involvement in crime, drug abuse and other destructive behaviors.”

Parents Feel Pinch of Cutbacks in Hillsborough After-School Programs (St. Petersburg Times, Florida)
Two students, whose afterschool program may be closed due to budget cuts, protested last week outside the County Center in Tampa, with hand-drawn signs.  The Hillsborough County Commission had originally planned to eliminate dozens of afterschool programs, but now says it will meet next week to discuss ways to save 19 of the programs slated for closure.

Ellis Marsalis Center for Music Opens in Musicians' Village (Times-Picayune, Louisiana)
Actor Harry Connick Jr. and musician Branford Marsalis last week toured the new Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, in the upper 9th Ward’s “Musicians’ Village.”  This fall, the center will host afterschool programs “designed to perpetuate New Orleans music and culture while providing professional and personal development,” the Times-Picayune reports.