Program Supporting Wisconsin Children at Risk of Losing Dedicated Federal Funding

Thursday, June 26th, 2025 -- 9:01 AM

(Corrinne Hess, Wisconsin Public Radio) A program supporting Wisconsin children for the last two decades is at risk of losing dedicated federal funding.

According to Corrinne Hess with Wisconsin Public Radio, community learning centers served 20,000 students at 168 sites across the state last school year.

The federal program is designed to support students at high-poverty schools through before- and after-school programs that offer academic and social programs and provide free meals to help students who might suffer food insecurity.

Since 2002, the program has been mostly funded through the federal Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Center grant. Last year, the state Department of Public Instruction received $19 million to fund the program.

But the President’s budget proposal would eliminate the grant, which is the only federal funding stream dedicated to after-school and summer learning.  Eliminating the grant is part of a proposed $12 billion in cuts to the U.S. Department of Education that would begin Oct. 1.

It amounts to a 15 percent cut to the agency’s budget. According to budget documents, the plan fulfills Trump’s “commitments to maintain funding to school districts serving children from low-income families,” but also “reflects an agency that is responsibly winding down.”

The President campaigned on promises to eliminate the federal Department of Education. But in Wisconsin, where more than 600,000 students have been served by community learning centers over the last two decades, school leaders say families will be hurt if the grant is cut and local funds can’t make up the difference.

“When we talk about the proposed impact that the loss of 21st Century CLC funds would have, the numbers speak for themselves,” said Leighton Cooper, a recreation coordinator with the Milwaukee Recreation Department who oversees community learning centers. The recreation department is part of Milwaukee Public Schools and serves more than 5,000 students at 36 centers across the city.

Those students would no longer have access to meals, recreation or academic enrichment, Cooper said. “There’s more of a need across the community now,” Cooper said.

“Young people are engaging in risky behaviors. These programs help to provide an alternative to ensure young people are safe.” The federal grant is awarded on a five-year basis.

In Milwaukee, Cooper said if the Trump budget passes, the centers would not immediately close. “No one is really certain what may happen,” Cooper said. “We’re taking steps to plan in the event that funds may not exist in the long term.”

That’s what is happening in Green Bay, too, where Amy Fish, the associate director of community partnerships and grants for the Green Bay Area Public School District, said she doesn’t want to alarm families.

There are more than 800 students enrolled in community centers at 11 sites in Green Bay. Those centers are dependent on $600,000 in federal funding, which Fish said can’t be replaced by local dollars.

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