A $19 million mistake has left many school districts and non-profit organizations around Mississippi scrambling.
Last week officials with the Mississippi Department of Education discovered the error when monies allocated for the 21st Century Community Centers program. It was found that MDE officials mishandled the grant money and tried to cover up mistakes by wrongly dipping into another pot of federal funds. The program supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities during non-school hours for children, specifically those students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools.
It is vital to have programs like this available in our communities to help at-risk students meet core academic standards and offer a broad array of enrichment activities that can complement their regular classroom learning.
The Oprah Winfrey Boys and Girls Club of Kosciusko/Attala County was awarded a $250,000 grant in the program to operate after school programs at Long Creek and Greenlee last year.
After facing much scrutiny MDE was able to come up with $10 million do go towards the fund, but they are still trying to find ways to make up the remainder.
The programs were supposed to serve 29,000 students in 67 districts and two charter schools this year. Some programs that had previously received funding could lose it, and it's unclear if any programs approved for the first time this year will get any money. Wright has said the state will try to channel funding to the most effective programs that reach the neediest children, but it is likely that some afterschool programs could find itself shut down.
Mistakes like this are unacceptable and it is the children in the poorest communities of Mississippi that will be paying the price. MDE must step up and find some way to correct this mistake and take measures so that mistakes like this never happen again.
