Soaring Beyond Expectations

25 years ago, the C.S. Mott Foundation embarked on a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) to grow public support and funding for high quality afterschool programs. It was an opportunity for the Mott Foundation to take its community education legacy to scale via afterschool. This unique partnership between a government entity and a private foundation was one of the first of its kind, and made clear the value add of philanthropy to government programs, and importance of investing in systems change. It began during President Clinton’s administration and grew a little known federal program, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21stCCLC) from $1M to $1B in just four years.

Today, the 21stCCLC continues to be the only federal funding source dedicated exclusively to supporting local afterschool, before-school, and summer learning programs. The program serves more than 1.7 million youth and their families through grants awarded by state education agencies. Grants support local schools and community based organizations that provide afterschool and summer learning programs to students attending high-poverty, low-performing schools.

The Beginning

I had the privilege of leading the afterschool education grantmaking at the Mott Foundation from 2000 – 2010. I was the liaison to the USDOE through several administrations, and developed and implemented the Foundation's and the partnership's strategic goals including creating the national network of statewide afterschool networks. I benefited from Bill White's (Mott’s CEO and President) wisdom and mentorship, formed life-long relationships with USDOE and afterschool colleagues, and worked with countless numbers of extraordinary and committed people to build the cornerstones of the afterschool movement.

As I prepared to celebrate the 25th anniversary at the July 2023 21stCCLC Summer Institute, I thought back to the details of the partnership that made all of this and the rest of the story possible.

In 1997 the USDOE asked Congress for $40M for the 21stCCLC demonstration project that was supporting 10 pilots. Seeing an opportunity, Adriana de Kanter, Deputy Director Planning and Evaluation Service at the USDOE and Starla Jewell Kelley, Executive Director of the National Community Education Association (long-time Mott grantee and a USDOE Partnership for Family Involvement in Education colleague) orchestrated an introduction between Bill White, Mott Foundation CEO and President; Dick Riley, U.S. Secretary of Education, and Terry Peterson, Counselor to the Secretary of Education at the October 23, 1997 White House Child Care Conference. Within five minutes, a meeting of the minds occurred and Bill White agreed to help fund “quality aspects” of the 21stCCLC initiative. The very next day, Bill White, and Mott Foundation staff Maureen Smyth, Judy Samelson, and Marianne Kugler; and USDOE staff including Dick Riley, Terry Peterson, Adriana de Kanter and Bob Stonehill, detailed a partnership agreement with an initial $2M Mott commitment for technical assistance.

USDOE proposed $200M a year over 5 years in the 1999 federal budget, and at the January 26, 1998 White House press conference, Bill White announced the Mott Foundation’s $55M multi-year commitment to support the implementation of the 21stCCLC initiative. Mott’s investments were a critical factor in gaining support for increased appropriations from the Administration and Congress. The partnership between Mott and the USDOE solidified quickly and the annual federal appropriation increased significantly, as did Mott’s commitment, reaching well over $100 million by 2014. With a focus on systemic change, grantmaking was designed to further public policy and advocacy at national, state, and local levels, engage new partners and collaborators, and support organizations working to improve program quality through research, technical assistance, professional development, and the curation of promising practices.

Today, the Mott Foundation continues its support of the 21stCLCC, and its long-standing commitment to community education that dates back to 1926, the inception of the Mott Foundation. Mott’s sustained philanthropic leadership and its support of field leadership and program quality has led to overall improved excellence in the field.

Power of Public-Private Partnerships

Much of the longevity of the 21stCCLC program has been due to the power of public-private partnerships and their ability to harness the strengths of both the public and private sectors to address complex challenges and achieve common goals. Spearheaded by the initial partnership at the federal level between the Mott Foundation and the USDOE, the afterschool community from national, state, and local levels have been able to garner bipartisan public support, increased funding, and improved program quality for all young people.

Aspects of public-private partnerships (PPPs) that have made the 21stCCLC successful include:

• Leveraging expertise and resources. The strength of public and private sectors bringing unique expertise, resources, and capabilities to the table can lead to more effective solutions. The Mott Foundation leveraged its financial resources and rich background in community education in partnership with the USDOE and significantly increased public funding to support millions of youth across the country.
• Sharing risks. PPPs allow for sharing of risks between public and private partners. Together the Mott Foundation and USDOE invested in evaluations and professional development before funding became available via the 21stCCLC program.
• Innovation. PPPs can combine the entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector with the public sector's social and regulatory responsibility. When the administration of the 21stCCLC devolved to the state departments of education, the Mott Foundation initiated a strategy to create a national network of statewide afterschool networks. Requirements included a partnership between the state departments of education, key stakeholders and influential organizations in each state. A competitive funding process was developed to fund one statewide entity in each state with a mission of building a wider, deeper, and strong afterschool movement that would weather a distressed economic climate, changes in political leadership, and other challenges to education programs.
• Faster implementation. The private sector's ability to mobilize resources quickly can lead to faster implementation, reducing delays often associated with solely government-led projects. The Mott Foundation funded events like the bidders conferences, the 21stCCLC summer institute, and the afterschool summit quickly and with greater flexibility.
• The long haul. Long-term perspective encourages consideration of long-term impact beyond short-term political cycles. The Mott Foundation has continued to partner with administrations since the initial partnership formed under the Clinton administration, as well as with other philanthropic partners.
• Public engagement. Engaging the public and relevant stakeholders can lead to better-informed projects that address community needs and concerns. Mott launched the What is Hero public awareness campaign that led to the formation of the Afterschool Alliance, an advocacy organization that has continued to garner bipartisan support for afterschool.

The Future

In the first 25 years, a cast of thousands of committed individuals including grassroots and grasstops partnerships, funders, champions, researchers, advocates, practitioners, companies, policymakers and other stakeholders have been critical to supporting high quality afterschool programs across the country. The partnerships and collaborations have been essential to improving the effectiveness and sustaining the program despite economic, political, COVID pandemic and other challenges to education programs, including preventing a proposed 40 percent cut to the 21stCCLC in 2003.

In the next 25 years, these partnerships are even more critical to ensure that the 21stCCLC and more afterschool funding will be available, sustainable, and equitably provide high quality and effective programming for all young people. The demand for these programs continues to far exceed the supply. Nearly 25 million children are not in an afterschool program, but would be if a program were available to them.

Although the current challenges to public education such as teacher shortages, book bans, and resistance to culturally responsive education may be overwhelming at times, there is also greater acknowledgement of the benefits of anytime, anywhere learning, hybrid and virtual learning, and how effective edtech can support equitable access to all. The afterschool field will need to take into account the challenges, capitalize on these windows of opportunities and continue to innovate, take risks, leverage resources and expertise, build public will, and stay the course to keep the Lights On Afterschool.