NPNC & Results for America Joint Press Release on Letter to Congress
PRESS RELEASE: Nearly 50 of the Top Education Nonprofits Across America Call on Congress to Continue Crucial Funding of ‘Promise Neighborhoods’
WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 24, 2024) — Nearly fifty education nonprofits from across the country have signed onto a letter to the Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies asking that the Promise Neighborhoods program continues to be funded.
The success of the United States Department of Education’s 39 Promise Neighborhoods is undeniable, impacting thousands of students and children since it began in 2010. In its nearly 15 years, the program has met its aim to provide children with a range of services to help them succeed in school and aspire to college and careers — but there is more work to be done.
As written in the letter, “...the overwhelming majority of applicants who have begun planning and building cradle-to-career infrastructure have been left without critical support to fully realize and scale those efforts.” Recipients that have received Promise Neighborhoods dollars are finding that the funding is drying up before their work is complete. Plus, more than 150 applicants have been approved but unfunded, building their initiatives in hopes of future federal funding.
“We are making generational change and the need is still there to finish this mission,” said Karen Matthews, CEO and President of the Delta Health Alliance and founding member of the National Promise Neighborhoods Coalition. “The Department of Education has received more than 970 applications for funding through the Promise Neighborhoods program, but only has the resources to fund 82 grants.”
“At a time when the country is grappling with chronic absenteeism, declining test scores, and widespread teacher shortages we have an opportunity to address these problems by investing in what works,” said Michele Jolin, CEO and Co-Founder for Results for America. “The Promise Neighborhoods program delivers results, and Congress should provide a pathway for even more children to access those results.”
At a minimum, $93 million would fund implementation and extension grants that create opportunities for current and new grantees to strengthen communities’ abilities to deliver critical services to children and families.
Evidence of success, as outlined in the letter:
Chula Vista Promise Neighborhood (Chula Vista, CA): The percentage of children living in the neighborhood who test kindergarten-ready has increased from 77 percent to 100 percent, more than double the national average of 48 percent.
Delta Health Alliance’s Indianola Promise Neighborhood (Indianola, MS): The pass rate on the Mississippi state reading readiness exam by at-risk third grade students increased 23 percent.
Camden Promise Neighborhood (Camden, NJ): The proportion of third- and fourth-grade
students in target schools performing at or above grade level in mathematics has tripled.
Mission Promise Neighborhood (San Francisco, CA): Since its founding, graduation rates among students attending MPN schools has increased by nearly 20 percentage points to 86 percent.
Signatories:
Aligned Impact Muscatine County
Bananas Inc.
Chattanooga 2.0
Children First
City of Orlando
Delta Health Alliance
Education Partnerships Coalition of Minnesota
Education Reform Now
Finding Common Purpose
First 5 Alameda County
Foundation for Tacoma Students
GreenLight Fund
Healthy Community Initiative
Higher Expectations for Racine County
ImpactTulsa
InnovateEDU
Learn to Earn Dayton
Louisville Urban League
Mission Economic Development Agency
National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives
Northside Achievement Zone
Oakland Promise
Oakland Thrives
Omega Community Development Corporation
Partners for Rural Impact
Promise Partnership Utah
Reach Riverside
Research Institute for Key Indicators Data Lab
Results for America
Saint Paul Promise
Save the Children
SBCS Corporation
Seeding Success
Spartanburg Academic Movement
StriveTogether
Summit Education Initiative
The Boston Foundation
The Boston Opportunity Agenda
The Commit Partnership
Toledo Tomorrow
United Way of Salt Lake
United Way of the Piedmont
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
U.S. Soccer Foundation
William Julius Wilson Institute at Harlem Children’s Zone
Ahu Yildirmaz, President and CEO, The Coleridge Initiative
Ebony Johnson, Senior Director, United Way of Greater Atlanta
Laura Haferkamp, C2C Data Manager, United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona