CHECK OUT THE NEWSPAPER, TV, or Twitter any day of the week and news floods in about the state of our educational system – debates over district versus charter schools, the value of standardized testing, the best way to teach math, or any number of issues relating to our schools.  For working parents, however, what goes on during the school day is only part of the puzzle. Just as important for many is where their children go and what they do between dismissal and dinner bells each day.

Over the next several weeks, funding for afterschool care will be among hundreds of line items considered as the Massachusetts Legislature hammers out the fiscal 2017 state budget.  The first step in this lengthy process came in January, when Gov. Charlie Baker released his budget recommendations. The next shoe drops later this month when the House begins debate on its version of next fiscal year’s spending plan.

Political discourse over the right level of public funding for afterschool care comes as one in five students nationwide is left unsupervised when the school day ends, according to the Afterschool Alliance. The Alliance’s 2015 report, “America After 3PM,” found that, while participation in afterschool programs has grown over the past decade, so too has demand. For each child taking part in an afterschool program, there are two more whose parents say they’d enroll their kids if programs were available.  Instead, they go home to empty houses or just “hang out” until adults return from work.

According to the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership, over 80 percent of Massachusetts parents say afterschool programs give them peace of mind while they are at work and help them keep their jobs. Nearly 90 percent support public funding for afterschool programming. My family is included in this statistic. With both my wife and I working long hours, we can keep our jobs and support our three kids due in large part to the access we have to high quality, affordable afterschool care in our community.

As a member of the state Afterschool and Out of School Time Coordinating Council, I’m well aware that others are not as lucky. Throughout Massachusetts, many parents are fraught with worry every afternoon and each school vacation – or they sacrifice necessary family income to stay home. Massachusetts’ afterschool program participation rate exceeds the national average, but that still leaves over 20 percent of Bay State children with no place to go after school except an empty house or the streets. We know that afterschool programs keep children safe, inspire learning, and support working families – and that’s why we can and should do better.

Gov. Baker’s proposed fiscal 2017 state budget falls short of the need. Proposed funding for programs covered by the After School and Out of School Time Grants would be funded at the same inadequate level as this fiscal year’s allocation under the Governor’s plan. In addition, for the second year, the Governor has recommended completely eliminating funding of the Summer Academies for Gateway Cities line item, an important program for English Language Learners in disadvantaged, urban areas.

Even level funding for the After School and Out of School Time Grants means that access to needed afterschool care would be stagnant for another year. As the House begins debate on the state budget, it is essential for parents and other stakeholders to call on their representatives to increase funding – and to do the same with their state senators when the budget reaches that branch later this spring. Overall, we hope to increase state grant funding from $3 million to $5 million – the amount allocated in fiscal 2006, before a series of cutbacks in these budget items. Last year, advocates for afterschool programs succeeded in getting the Summer Academies for Gateway Cities funding restored through the budget process and that’s this year’s goal, too.

I grew up in the “latch key kids” heyday of the 1970s and ‘80s. Children today are fortunate to have an enormous array of alternatives to sitting on the curb or in front of a TV screen alone – if they can only gain access.  My wife and I are grateful we don’t have to worry what our school-age daughter is doing after school and before we get home. We know she is safe and productively engaged. Families that are not as economically fortunate are precisely the ones who need afterschool programming the most – from the perspective of children’s safety and security, as well as parents’ career growth and better earning potential. Increased state funding for afterschool programs will widen the pathway so that more children can continue developing new skills, knowledge, and friends after the dismissal bell rings.

Rob O’Dwyer of Winthrop is the parent member of the Massachusetts Afterschool and Out of School Time Coordinating Council.