On Sunday, June 24th, numerous legislators, advocates, and community partners gathered at the Heart of LA campus for the “Thanks a Brunch!” event, hosted by CA3. These individuals took time to connect, network, and celebrate their shared vision of an educational environment that prioritizes and protects expanded learning programming.
The legislators present, including California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Senator Josh Newman, Assemblymember Mike Fong, and Assemblymember Tina McKinnor who all played critical roles in securing and protecting Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELO-P) funding.
ELO-P provides funding for afterschool and summer school programming that focuses on developing the academic, social, emotional, and physical skills and interests of students in transitional kindergarten through sixth grade. ELO-P-funded programming is intended to be results-driven, complement regular school-based learning, and involve community partners.
ELO-P funding levels are set to remain stable at $4 billion in Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2024-25 budget proposal. Thanks to the shared work of many legislators and advocates, including those present at last Sunday’s event, programs like Woodcraft Rangers, YMCA, Boys & Girls Club, and others throughout Southern California can continue to expand their reach and provide learning opportunities to more students in their communities.
As it currently stands, ELO-P funding is distributed to local education agencies (LEAs) such as school districts and county offices of education, who then designs a program plan that outlines the use of these funds and distributes them to community-based organizations that conduct majority school based programming. However, we must begin to take an innovative approach to funding these programs. Allowing funds to be allocated directly to CBOs, rather than requiring them to be filtered through LEAs, this approach may make these funds more efficient, enabling the right organizations to access them and subsequently provide more options and expanded learning opportunities.
For example, ELO-P funds could be provided to an intermediary organization with a vast and intimate knowledge of the network of expanded learning opportunity program providers in a given region, allowing them to strategically distribute these funds in partnership with school districts to multiple providers in their area and alleviate pressure on districts to manage and distribute ELO-P funding. In Los Angeles, organizations such as ExpandLA, a CBO that supports, connects, and advocates for expanded learning opportunities across LA County, could serve as this intermediary. Streamlining this process could allow CBOs to harness the full potential of these programs and ensure they reach those who need them most.
Sunday’s event demonstrated the strength of our state and community’s collective commitment to advocating for expanded learning opportunities. State government, LEAs, CBOs and other advocates or partners can work hand-in-hand to craft creative ways to support these opportunities for our students.
Together, we have made it possible to imagine new possibilities for these programs and renewed faith in our ability to positively and creatively transform the lives of learners of all ages throughout California.
