Opinion
Federal Opinion

A Bipartisan Argument for Full-Service Community Schools

By Steny H. Hoyer & Aaron Schock — July 28, 2014 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

One of the most important jobs Congress has is to ensure that our nation’s children have access to a quality education and the opportunities it brings. A strong education is critically important to secure a place in our middle class. However, we are not doing enough as a country to provide all of our children with the educational foundation they need to succeed. That’s why we joined together last week to introduce the Full-Service Community Schools Act of 2014, bipartisan legislation that would create a competitive-grant program to expand the number of full-service community schools around the country.

Full-service community schools provide support and resources to children and their families in order to encourage the future success of all students. Too often, students from low-income households don’t have the necessities that are critical to their success in the classroom, including proper nutrition and health care. As we learn more about the links between students’ health and well-being and their performance in reading and math, tackling the interrelated challenges of education, nutrition, and health care has become a top priority.

That challenge is what our bill aims to meet. Full-service community schools put education programs and health services, including nutrition, medical, dental, and counseling, together in one location, providing low-income families with a one-stop shop where they can access the services they need. Bringing these additional services into schools, which can also extend to job training and personal-finance workshops for parents, provides students with a better shot at success and parents with the tools they need to support their children’s learning. Additionally, these facilities stay open after normal school hours and offer weekend hours to increase family participation.

 The children served by these schools have a greater chance of closing the achievement gap, succeeding in school, and graduating ready for college or a career.”

Our bill shows how Washington can work in a principled way to tackle a serious issue with innovative solutions. Under this legislation, grants would be offered to states seeking to support these schools through statewide education programming, as well as to local partnerships between school districts and community-based organizations. Recognizing that rural school districts often find themselves at a disadvantage when competing for funding, our bill features a separate funding stream for these communities.

Full-service community schools are already making a positive impact in many areas around the country, including in Maryland at the early-childhood level. One example is the Judith P. Hoyer Early Child Care and Family Education Centers. This network of 27 full-service community schools across the state provides approximately 12,000 children and their families with year-round, full-day early education and a range of social services. We can already see the difference being made in Maryland: Program evaluations conducted by the state department of education found that children who used the services at Judy Centers performed better than those who didn’t when tested for kindergarten readiness.

In Peoria, Ill., three full-service community schools are administered through a partnership with the neighboring Bradley University as a pilot program for what could be achieved statewide at the K-12 level. States with large rural populations could benefit from aggregating services in one place to help families save time traveling long distances to access them. At the same time, urban and suburban areas with higher property costs could find savings by reducing the number of facilities necessary to house these services separately.

The benefits of full-service community schools are clear: This model results in a more efficient delivery of services and saves money. But, most important, the children served by these schools have a greater chance of closing the achievement gap, succeeding in school, and graduating ready for college or a career, according to numerous studies. Investments in full-service community schools are investments in a competitive workforce. Education for low-income children can help close the achievement gap while yielding dividends in the form of more graduates who will start small businesses and launch new startups as the innovators and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Over the coming weeks, we will be working to secure support from both Republicans and Democrats to pass the Full-Service Community Schools Act. Already, our bill has strong support in the education community, including from the Coalition for Community Schools, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the National Association of State Boards of Education.

The challenge of the achievement gap cannot be solved at the state and local levels alone. By partnering the federal government with state education agencies, local school districts, and community-based organizations, we can help close that gap and make certain that every one of our students has the chance to access an education that can place him or her on the path to success.

A version of this article appeared in the August 06, 2014 edition of Education Week

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal What Would Happen to K-12 in a 2nd Trump Term? A Detailed Policy Agenda Offers Clues
A conservative policy agenda could offer the clearest view yet of K-12 education in a second Trump term.
8 min read
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, March 9, 2024, in Rome Ga.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, March 9, 2024, in Rome, Ga. Allies of the former president have assembled a detailed policy agenda for every corner of the federal government with the idea that it would be ready for a conservative president to use at the start of a new term next year.
Mike Stewart/AP
Federal Opinion Student Literacy Rates Are Concerning. How Can We Turn This Around?
The ranking Republican senator on the education committee wants to hear from educators and families about making improvements.
6 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Federal Biden Calls for Teacher Pay Raises, Expanded Pre-K in State of the Union
President Joe Biden highlighted a number of his education priorities in a high-stakes speech as he seeks a second term.
5 min read
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
Shawn Thew/Pool via AP
Federal Low-Performing Schools Are Left to Languish by Districts and States, Watchdog Finds
Fewer than half of district plans for improving struggling schools meet bare minimum requirements.
11 min read
A group of silhouettes looks across a grid with a public school on the other side.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva