In a perfect world, all children would have families that could provide most of their care and nurturing. Every child would live in adequate housing with two parents, at least one of whom could be at home with them after school to supervise homework and activities.

Unfortunately, it isn’t a perfect world. Many children don’t have a parent waiting for them after school, and their families may not be able to afford adequate after-school child care. For them, the hours between school and whenever a parent gets home can be both lonely and dangerous. Some children get by; others get into trouble.

The good news is that Lawrence is a caring community that wants to make sure more after-school options are available for its young people. Federal funding for after-school programs at four Lawrence elementary schools has expired, and the volunteer After School Coalition is working to keep those programs afloat. It will cost about $400,000 to serve about 400 children for the next year. Through private funds and grant money, the group has raised $195,000 of that total. It now is going to the community to ask for its support.

Local residents had mixed responses to the “On the Street” question in Thursday’s Journal-World asking who should pay for after-school care. One person thought parents should be responsible because they “would have to pay for some kind of after-school care anyway.”

Members of the After School Coalition agree, but they know that many parents are unable or unwilling to pay the full cost of care. They have agreed, however to raise the fees paid by families from $10 a month to $10 a week. That’s a low fee, but it’s a lot for some families to pay.

A couple of “On the Street” respondents thought the public should pay. The After School Coalition also sees the programs as partially a community responsibility. In addition to seeking grants and donations, the coalition also is exploring the possibility of dedicating a small portion of our local sales tax money to these programs. Much of the city’s sales tax revenue already goes to recreation programs so it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to allocate some of that money for after-school activities.

After-school programs that provide some supervision and activities for children who otherwise might head home alone are a good investment in the community. The relatively small amount of money it costs to provide such programs can have a big payoff in terms of putting youngsters on the right track to become well-adjusted, productive adults. Families have a responsibility to these children, but so does the community. We need to work together to get them off to a good start.