Weekly Media Roundup - August 23, 2012

Councilman C.O. Bradford made headlines last week when he told the Houston Chronicle that he proposes hiring 20 fewer police officers in the coming year and using the savings to put nearly 2,000 more children into homework clubs, sports, scholarship coaching and museum tours. Houston's former police chief said having 10 fewer cadets in two of the classes could save the city $1.6 million, enough to put an entire large middle school's worth of children into activities each weekday afternoon. Bradford plans to pitch his plan to Mayor Annise Parker, but a spokesman for the mayor said she’s not ready to expand the afterschool program at the expense of the cadet classes.

 

U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) visited Woodside on the Move’s summer camp at PS 11 earlier this week to watch the students at work and deliver bags of school supplies.  “It gives me an opportunity to see the young folks in the district and see them in a safe and enriching environment,” Rep. Crowley told the Queens TimesLedger. PS 11’s afterschool program director reported that this year Woodside on the Move received $830,000 from the city budget due to the efforts of Rep. Crowley and members of the city council. Woodside on the Move’s program was originally slated to be cut in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s executive budget before the funding was restored.

 

NBA superstar LeBron James was in Akron on Sunday to celebrate the Wheels for Education program, a program James announced a year ago. Wheels for Education is designed to see more than 300 third-graders in the Akron Public Schools through to their high school graduation. In conjunction with corporate partners, each student received a laptop, a backpack with school supplies and a bike to start them on their way. James led students onto the field after the Akron Aeros’ baseball game at Canal Park and in his remarks James talked about what a difference it makes to kids to have afterschool programs that keep them motivated and out of trouble.  “I wouldn't be the person I am today if not for this city, for these streets,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. 

Seventeen students aged 12 to 18, participating in the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art’s Summer Studio program collaborated with a professional artist to create a three-dimensional work of art to be displayed in the lobby of the North Miami Police Station. Using the talents of each student, the art installation is made up of a collage, with newspaper articles on positive events in the background and archived pictures from the police department in the foreground. The focal points in the “Your Police and Your Community” piece are the life-size plywood cut-outs of officers and children. The students were so committed to their summer program that they continued to help local artist Ruben Ubiera work on the piece in the studio even after their classes were over, the Miami Herald reports.