Essential Estrogen

In today's Fort Dodge Messenger Iowa Rep. Helen Miler (D-Fort Dodge) provided some details about a bill she's working on which should benefit Iowa's working families.

One of the growing problems for working families is that the school day ends at roughly 3 p.m., but the work day doesn't. Almost one in three Iowa children of working families are unsupervised in the afternoons, according to the Afterschool Alliance. The data gathered by that group in 2005 showed just 11 percent of the children in working families are in afterschool programs, while 32 percent of them are "latchkey kids" with no adult supervision in the afternoon.

‘‘I do support (additional state funding) because I believe we have got to do something with these children,’’ said Rep. Miller.

She pointed out that Iowa leads the nation in the percentage of families in which both parents work — or, in single-parent households, in which the only parent works. Miller termed the hours after school a ‘‘huge chunk of time that children can get into trouble.’’

Miller went on to add a few details about a bill she plans to introduce. The bill would fund after-school art activities that tapped the skills students were learning in other classes. The thinking is that the legislature might be more prone to fund programs associated with school.

Although conventional wisdom has dictated that middle school children are involved in activities following the school day and, therefore, do not have the same needs of younger children, crime statistics have shown this not to be the case. Juvenile crime rates, according to Iowa Afterschool Alliance coordinator Rachel Scott, triple between 3 and 6 p.m.

On a national level

• Two in five middle school children (grades six to eight) in working families (40%) are unsupervised in the afternoons.
• 9.7 million children in working families who do not participate in afterschool programs would be likely to participate if a program were available.
• 14% of children, kindergarten through 12th grade, in working families attend afterschool programs, compared to 11% of all K-12 children. 19% of the children of single working mothers participate in afterschool programs.
• Just 7% of children in rural working families attend afterschool programs.
• 31% of Caucasian, 25% of African American and Hispanic, and 21% of Asian Pacific Islander children in working families are in self-care in the afternoons.

During the past year, the Iowa legislature has alloted $150,000 for afterschool programs. Advocates argue $4 million is needed.