‘Nowhere else to go’: Arlington after-school program hit by federal budget cuts

ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) — For eight-year-old Alina, the Aspire After School Learning program is more than a place to pass the time—it is a sanctuary of structure, creativity, and friendship.

“I learn new stuff and I make new friends and things like that,” she said while showing off a collection of hand-painted seashells and watercolor florals crafted by her classmates featured for sale at the Columbia Pike Farmer’s Market.

There, the artistic expressions have found a second life, as Aspire students sell their creations, alongside lemonade, vegetables from the community garden, and baked goods, in a grassroots effort to sustain the program itself.

Aspire is now confronting an existential crisis, which CEO Paul Fynboh said could result in turning students away.

The program, which provides free academic and enrichment support to low-income families in Arlington County, has lost nearly a third of its funding after the Trump administration cut roughly $400 million in federal funding for AmeriCorps. While once-slashed Department of Education funding was reinstated last week for some after-school programs, students who rely on other programs are poised to fall through the cracks.

Aspire lost approximately $350,000 in federal grants, leaving both its leadership and the families it serves scrambling for alternative funding sources.

“Without Aspire, families quite literally have nowhere else to turn,” said Paula Fynboh, the organization’s CEO. “We are the only no-cost after-school program in the county.”

Aspire supports 155 students throughout the school year and summer months, offering academic tutoring, meals, and enrichment activities in a safe, structured environment. Fynboh said the services cost about $8,000 per student each year. For many working parents, the program is essential to maintaining employment while ensuring their children are supervised, fed, and supported.

Students’ academic trajectories improve greatly because of the program, Fynboh said. She said students arrive at the program testing nearly two grade levels behind. With targeted intervention, some make remarkable gains, advancing as much as three grade levels in a single year.

Without restored funding, those gains and the futures of children like Alina hang in the balance.