When the federal government unexpectedly withheld $1.3 billion in funding for summer and afterschool programs last month, program leaders across the country were left scrambling to figure out how long they could keep operating.
“If we don't get the money released, who is going to pay the bills?” Don Neal remembers asking himself. Neal is the project director of C2 Pipeline, a career and college readiness program for metro-Detroit high school students.
“From a financial sense, it was impossible. So we were in the mode of kind of layoffs [and] canceling programming,” Neal said.
After advocacy from lawmakers and families, the Office of Management and Budget released the funds, but the three weeks leading up to that moment left many leaders of Congressionally-funded 21st Century Learning Centers fearing they would have to close their doors to the families who rely on those programs to provide safe, enriching — and free — programming to children across the country.
That would’ve been a huge blow to the hundreds of teens who take part in the wide array of summer immersion programs C2 Pipeline offers over the summer, giving students a chance to try out different career opportunities — to find out what it’s like to be a nurse or a nail tech before they enroll in courses to become one.
“We try to give them the tools so that they can fail in a safe space, learn things now instead of spending a lot of time and money later on,” said Neal.
Getting ahead on career planning can be especially important for low-income students and first generation college goers, who are more likely to drop out of higher education programs, often after taking on debt.
Playing detective, testing a career
In a shiny new laboratory with gleaming steel tables and big, bright lights, a couple dozen high schoolers from across metro Detroit donned lab coats and goggles. While program managers worried about finances, the kids were unaware, having fun at C2 Pipeline’s weeklong forensics course on Wayne State University’s campus to learn how to analyze blood splatter for clues about a made-up crime.
14-year-old Sariah Dean and her lab partners drop fake blood from various heights, squirt it out of syringes, and dribble it beside them as they walk. They learn how to analyze the patterns of droplets, measuring them with calipers and drawing them onto lab sheets.
“I just like figuring things out,” said Dean, a student at Lincoln High School. “I just wanted to be a detective because I used to watch crime shows and try to figure them out. So, like, now I can actually do [that]. It's really fun.”
Having fun is part of the mission of C2, according to Cynthia Maxwell, the retired science teacher who facilitated the forensics camp.
“It's not like they're being graded. They're just having fun with science. I think right now, if they can have fun with it,” she said, “Maybe they'll want to do it as a career.”
21st Century Learning Centers serve thousands of Michigan kids
For decades, Congress has funded 21st Century Learning Centers — hundreds of summer and afterschool programs like C2 Pipeline. In Michigan, the Learning Centers serve 16,000 students from pre-K to 12th grade with about $36.7 million in federal funding.
President Donald Trump had signed off on the funding in March. That’s why it was such a surprise when the federal government froze funds for all 21st Century Learning Centers at the end of June.
“We figured we could maybe get through another week,” Neal said at that point. “It was a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress.”
In an effort to cut costs and retain as much programming as possible, the C2 Pipeline immediately cancelled a program that would’ve had students staying in campus housing at Wayne State University.
Then, Neal and his team feared further cuts before getting approval to use federal funds leftover from previous grant years. Neal and his staff were able to continue offering their full stable of immersive summer learning opportunities.
In mid-July, 22 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit to get the money moving, and families lobbied to keep the programs going. 10 Republican Senators took a rare public stand, signing an open letter calling for the federal government to release the money. Two days later, the federal government released funding for 21st Century Learning Centers.
“There was a really a large outcry, if you will, from both Democratic as well as Republican members of Congress to help to see those funds released to make sure that they got to kids,” said Erin Skene-Pratt of the Michigan Afterschool Partnership.
Getting to take part in another of C2 Pipeline’s offerings — a law program led by Wayne State Law faculty — has shored up 15-year-old Kailyn Powell’s dream of being a lawyer.
“You get to do research, you get to work with the witnesses, and the overall idea of being able to help people” is exciting to the Henry Ford Academy student.
“They obviously need someone like a lawyer to help them and to be somebody like that is just like, really cool,” she said.
Powell said she can’t wait to come back next year to do the C2 law program again. And with funding restored for 21st Century Learning Centers through next summer, that’s still possible.
