Free summer camp for more kids? Murphy pitches $4B investment

U.S. Sen Chris Murphy visited Camp Courant Friday to announce newly proposed federal legislation that would invest billions of dollars into free summer programs for kids across the country.

The Hartford camp, which bills itself as the largest and oldest free summer day camp in the country, serves hundreds of children each year. It would be among those that could benefit should the Summer for All Act were to become law.

The measure proposes the creation of two grant programs that would be funded by $4 billion of federal money over the course of four years.

Murphy said that if passed, Connecticut could see about $10 million in funding each year from the legislation.

“The bill will have two different grant programs, one that will go directly to camps and camps can apply directly to the federal government for dollars to help expand the slots that they have for low-income families,” Murphy said. “The second grant would go directly to states … which they could use in any way they saw fit.”

Murphy called the proposed bill “absolutely critical,” especially coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic where schools saw high levels of learning loss , mental health challenges and disruptions to socialization .

“Outside experiences, adventure experiences, summer experiences, where you get to improve and enhance your socialization skills, where you get to have your mind opened to new possibilities, new hobbies, new interests — it’s necessary. It’s life changing and often it’s life saving,” Murphy said. “It’s a tough time to be a kid. It’s a tough time to be a parent. So, we have to make sure that when our kids leave school for the summer, they don’t lose access to learning and socialization.”

Murphy was joined by Gov. Ned Lamont at the news conference, who gathered a group of Camp Courant children and asked if they loved their camp and whether “camps like this should be available to everyone.”

The children erupted in screams and nodded their heads.

“What I love about Senator Murphy is that he takes the very best ideas from Connecticut — what we’ve done on gun safety, what we’re doing in our summer learning camps — and makes sure it’s available across this state and hopefully across this country,” Lamont said.

The bill comes on the heels of the upcoming expiration of federal COVID-19 relief funding later this year. Funding designated to schools, known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief or ESSER, is set to expire on Sept. 30.

The COVID-19 relief funding to schools was allocated over three periods, known as ESSER I, ESSER II and ESSER III, which totaled about $1.7 billion for Connecticut schools. Between ESSER I and ESSER III, funding increased tenfold, according to Education Elements , which noted that federal funding was supposed to be spent on summer learning, technology, activities to address student needs, learning loss initiatives and evidence-based interventions especially for disadvantaged students.

Schools and other education stakeholders across the state have already announced their anticipated cuts to programs that were funded through the relief dollars, including things like summer learning, mental health services and tutoring.

Aaron Dworkin, CEO of the National Summer Learning Association , said continued funding into free summer opportunities can promote educational equity, provide boosted support to local schools and expose children to new opportunities and communities.

“We have the programs. We have the expertise. We have the partnerships,” Dworkin said. “Now, if we have the continued funding, we could get every kid who deserves and wants a summer program, we can make sure they’re in one.”

The bill proposal also comes as a new Gallup survey was released Friday that said over 45% of children in the U.S. lack summer learning opportunities and that an estimated 24 million children across the country did not participate in any structured program last summer.

“About half of parents of kindergarten through grade 12 students say there were summer programs they wanted their children to take but couldn’t. The cost of the programs is the main reason they give for not being able to participate,” the survey findings said.