Program for pregnant students has unclear future

When Quentina Fields found out she was pregnant - at 17, a junior at Bartram High School - the news was so disorienting, it felt as if it were happening to someone else.

"Like out of a movie," she said.

Teachers took Fields to the school ELECT program, which helps pregnant students and young mothers stay in class and graduate.

In November, Fields gave birth to a son. And in June, bolstered by parent training and academic tutoring, she accepted her diploma.

Now the future of ELECT has grown hazy.

Funding for the summer program has been canceled, and an after-school component for middle-school students eliminated, due to cuts contained in the budget signed by Gov. Corbett, officials said. The fate of the main in-school program hinges on an agreement to be worked out between the state Public Welfare and Education Departments.

People familiar with those discussions said it appeared ELECT would be funded at a reduced level next year. In the meantime, the 50-person city staff has been laid off, and worry among students has spread.

"I'm pregnant again by the same boy, and I don't know what to do," said Anna Graham, 17, who is raising a 1-year-old son and will be a senior at Vaux High School. "I could use help from the ELECT program again. ... I want to go to college. I want to learn."

Martin Nock, president of Communities in Schools of Philadelphia, which runs ELECT in 33 schools, said he was told funding will be forthcoming.

"We're waiting to see what the dollar amount is, but it's definitely reduced," he said Monday. "I count it as good news, because prior to that we had no idea that the program was even continuing."

The uncertainty surrounding ELECT is part of a continuing revelation of retrenchment, occurring as agencies absorb the impact of a budget that cut millions for public schools, higher education, and social services. As larger cuts filter down, programs are reducing staff, raising fees, or ceasing operations.

Republican leaders say that's the difficult reality created by years of government overspending - practices that left the Corbett administration with a $4 billion budget hole.

"For every single, specific [budget] line, there are defenders, there are heart-wrenching stories, and there were good reasons they were put there," House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin said. "Putting this budget together was not easy for anybody."