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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Group Pushes for Funding to Improve Expanded Learning Programs

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Tuesday, February 28, 2017   

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A new legislative push is under way in Olympia to invest in the Expanded Learning Opportunities Quality Initiative so that a wide variety of after-school and summer youth programs can give kids the support they need.

School's Out Washington is looking for a $4 million investment from lawmakers so it can provide coaching, training, funding and technical assistance to 260 programs that serve more than 10,000 kids.

Heather Longhurst is the executive director of Pacific Ballroom Dance. She recently went to Olympia to speak to lawmakers about the initiative and how it can help programs of any type.

"It meets you where you are," she said. "So you can start where you are and identify where you are in your development as a program, and then grow from there and get better and better all the time."

So far, the expanded learning initiative has helped 50 programs in the state with one year of funding. School's Out Washington wants to reach underserved populations and prioritize dual-language speakers with the new investment. It hopes to use the investment to leverage the private sector to fund expanded learning programs as well.

The Chinese Information Service Center in King County also has been a part of the initiative and received training to improve its after-school programs for Asian immigrants.

Peggy Kwok, the youth development program supervisor for the center, says the choices for recent immigrants can be limited, especially for low-income families.

"They are not quite able to choose from a number of after-school program options for their kids," she said. "So, we are one of them, because we run our program in bilingual services. No parent would like to choose some bad or ineffective after-school program."

Kwok says CISC isn't a luxury for the students and parents her program serves - it's a necessity. She says parents were pleased to hear the program was receiving training and looking to improve itself.

"They think that we have been moving in the very right direction, and so they feel very trustful of our performance, especially our staff and all our services," she added.


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