Boulder Elementary may be forced to end its popular, two-decade-old afterschool program following a multi-billion-dollar cut to the national education budget.
The Trump administration last week announced the withholding of $6.8 billion in federal education funds, including $1.4 billion for 10,000 before- and after-school initiatives across the country as part of the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers program.
To cover five years of its 21st Century program, the Boulder Elementary Consortium expected to receive just under $250,000 from the state on July 1, the fiscal start date for the coming school year. But the funds did not arrive and are not expected anytime soon, according to 21st CCLC Program Director Kassie Nordlinder. “We’re basically in a holding pattern,” she said about the afterschool funds the school had received since 2003.
