By Dan McDonald
March 26, 2011 12:00 AM
NEW BEDFORD — Sixteen-year-old McKaila Coulter chided a trio of lawmakers for their tardiness, then told them they needed to work "10 times harder" to ensure youth programs in the city were spared the state's budget ax.
She was among those in the cramped basement room of the NorthStar Learning Center Friday morning to implore state Sen. Mark C.W. Montigny and state Reps. Antonio F.D. Cabral and Stephen R. Canessa to advocate for youth service programs and work to spare such programs from cuts.
Coulter spoke of how PACE YouthBuild, which offers after-school tutoring and training for general educational development, or GED, helped her attain her GED after she stopped attending high school.
"Everyone's having a struggle. My program is very, very poor," she said.
The state, meanwhile, has its own fiscal problems, as legislators are staring down a budget deficit of about $2 billion.
YouthBuild is funded through a variety of sources, including $135,000 from the state, according to Gloria Williams, the YouthBuild program director.
She said the program's "commitment is about education, training and transformation."
She told the three New Bedford Democrats, "You need to re-think government and how services need to be provided."
Trevor Newton, 18, of New Bedford, said the same program helped him turn his life around in a month and a half. Newton said before becoming involved with YouthBuild, he was a high school dropout who was sleeping at the home of a friend during the day and "hustling" on the streets at night. Now, he said he is pursuing his high school diploma at night school, has obtained his driver's permit, and started working at a local iParty. He said he plans on receiving his diploma this June.
"Without YouthBuild, I'd still be on the block every night," he said. "Cutting that funding back, how is that helping us out? It's not."
Marquise Grace, 12, of New Bedford spoke of how another after-school program at Roosevelt Middle School, run by NorthStar, helped keep him off the streets and taught him the importance of education and a job.
"Kids ... they are our future," said Gerald Fernandes, who runs the after-school program. Cutting funding would be short-sighted, he said.
The state Department of Public Health funds the Roosevelt program at just under $40,000, said Maria Rosario, NorthStar's executive director. That number, she said, is the result of a 50 percent reduction in funding in fiscal 2010. Rosario was among those concerned that the funding would be cut even more.
"Most of us are working with peanuts. What are you going to cut?"
There were no guarantees, promises or pledges from the legislators. Inside the Linden Street center, all three gave frank assessments of the state's finances.
Canessa said, "It has gotten to the point where folks are begging for us to hold the line on their budget."
Canessa said the youth service programs "are certainly among our priorities."
Montigny said youth programs "save lives and a tremendous amount of money," but added that the budget cuts are "going to be painful."
Citing the state's fiscal straits, Montigny said, "even level funding at this point is completely unaffordable."
