L.A. After-School Program Offers Winning Formula

While public-policy wonks continue to debate the merits of the No Child Left Behind Act, charter schools’ effectiveness and the best ways to teach English language learners, at least one education program has drawn near-universal praise. That’s the LA’s BEST after- school program.

That program, which was established by Mayor Tom Bradley in 1988, has continued to expand under subsequent city administrations and now serves 24,000 students. LA’s BEST provides free enrichment activities to elementary schoolchildren between 3 and 6 p.m., including homework assistance, computers, science, sports, theater and visual arts, recreational reading and field trips.

That after-school interval has been identified by researchers as a time when unsupervised youths are at a high risk of getting into trouble.

A UCLA study released last week found that children enrolled in the program were 20 percent less likely to drop out of high school than other Los Angeles Unified School District students who didn’t take part in the program.

The city program has been embraced by all the Los Angeles mayors since Bradley left office. But a lot of credit for the program’s recent success and expansion, we feel, goes to former Mayor James Hahn, who made its funding a top priority and who worked to expand the program to serve an additional 5,000 students while he was in office.

LA’s BEST, which relies on private as well as public funding, has proved itself to be an effective model for how school districts and municipal governments can work together to help students and prevent crime. The program should continue to be supported by public officials who want to make a real difference in the lives of youths.