Last year, I paid a visit to the SEED public charter school here in Washington, DC.

SEED is the only publicly-funded urban boarding school in the nation. It starts in grade X, is co-ed, and serves a very low-income, very academically needy bunch of about 320 kids in grades 7 through 12 -- virtually all of them minorities. Started by Eric Adler and Rajiv Vinnakota, the school boasts a lovely campus, two dormitories (one for boys, one for girls), a pleasant gymnasium and cafeteria, a spacious well-stocked library.

I can't say it really reminded me too much of my own boarding school -- for one thing, we didn't have any boys, and for another, there's just no corner of Southeast DC that stacks up to rural New England for that leafy, Colonial feeling. And that being then, the number of African-American and Hispanic students was very small. But that beehive feeling of a buzzing adolescent community kept under rather strict control was very familiar.

In it's eight years of operation, SEED has demonstrated success on the measures that matter the most -- students, who typically enter two or more years behind, according to the founders, have been catching up, doing well, and going on to college. But it's small change in the big world of inadequate high school education.

Now, Adler and Vinnakota are hoping to expand, with new campuses in Maryland and California. Expense is a problem -- while the founders have been successful in raising private funds for major expenditures such as building facilities, they look to public school funding for per-pupil costs, and those are high -- about three times the cost for traditional day students.

But legislators in both states have expressed some support, and may move forward. SEED's big selling point is its success with a population of students that seems pre-programmed for failure. If the experiment expands, it will be interesting to see if it successfully makes the transition from small one-off success story to replicable model that works in different settings.

I sat in on a discussion for the upcoming Digital TV transition when Connect for Kids was still a project of the Benton Foundation. The discussion was way over my low-tech head.

But Digital TV is coming (President Bush signed legislation setting a hard date to complete the transition on February 17, 2009) and Charles Benton, head of the Benton Foundation, says we need to pay attention not just to the technology, which is going to cost consumers a lot more, but also to what it means for families and public interest programming.

Benton is calling on the FCC to include educating the public about broadcasters' public interest obligations for educational programming for children and local public service reporting (election coverage, disability access and emergency services) as part of the charge for a proposed DTV Task Force.

Quality after-school programs have been shown to cut crime, victimization, destructive behavior and even obesity among teens – and now there’s evidence that even beyond academic performance, after-school programs can boost graduation rates. Students in Los Angeles' Better Educated Students for Tomorrow (LA's BEST) free after-school program were less likely to drop out of high school than their peers – leading to at least a 20 percent improvement in the district dropout rate, according to a study by the UCLA National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing.

Read about this and other news from the child advocacy, research and policy community in the Connect for Kids Weekly.

The National PTA says the Senate vote to add more than $16 billion to President George W. Bush's fiscal year 2007 (FY07) budget request included more than $10 billion for programs under the purview of the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education Appropriations Subcommittee. The "stunning" vote came last week, after several days of intense lobbying by education, child advocacy, and health organizations, as well as substantial grassroots mobilization, in support of an amendment introduced by Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Tom Harkin of Iowa to increase discretionary funding in the FY07 budget resolution (S.Con.Res. 83).

The Senate also agreed to increase funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by $3.3 billion, increasing the funds available to carry out that program to the full authorized level of $5.1 billion. The increase in LIHEAP funding would be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes

An amendment introduced by Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island to increase funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by $2 billion was also adopted but will likely be stripped out in conference with the House Budget Committee due to the fact that it does not include a mechanism for paying for the increase. The Senate's budget resolution is $2.8 trillion. The House Budget Committee is not expected to work on the House's FY07 budget resolution until April 5.

This year, Sen. Mary Landrieu -- Democrat of Louisiana -- plans to introduce the Proud Father Act. The law would address one aspect of the inequitable legal treatment of unmarried fathers seeking to fulfill their parental role, by creating a national registry of men who are (or believe they may be) the fathers of children born to single mothers. That would make it easier for these fathers to have their voices heard on critical issues, most particularly that of whether a child should be legally adopted by someone else.

As it now stands, and as vividly described in a recent New York Times article,, a single mother can easily thwart a father's desire to have a say in the adoption decision simply by moving across state lines. And most often, even that isn't necessary, as many single dads don't sign up for state registries because they a) don't know they exist b) don't know they have become fathers c) miss the filing deadline.

This is tricky territory. The cultural cliche of the feckless male carelessly fathering multiple children with multiple women and then failing to support them either financially or emotionally is built upon too many sad but true stories. And our long history of legally giving unwed mothers, rather than fathers, the right to make these critical decisions is grounded in some harsh realities: it is mothers who undergo pregnancy and childbirth and the risks that go with them; who in most cases will bear the primary burdens of caring for a child; and it is always certain who the mother is, whereas establishing paternity is a process many men have resisted.

Nevertheless, it does seem fundamental that a father who wants to have a relationship with his own child should have some voice in the adoption decision, and some right to establish a relationship with his offspring. Making that somewhat more likely is the ultimate goal of the registry.

I do believe that anything we can do as a society to encourage more unmarried men to embrace fatherhood and its responsibilities is ultimately good for kids. And fathers. And communities. Because, let's face it, marriage doesn't look poised for a comeback right now. So we need to work with what we've got.

While improved child support enforcement has helped many mothers and children achieve economic stability, it also has created a huge disincentive to regular work for many non-custodial fathers. Maybe those men would be more likely to work hard and try to get ahead if they saw their efforts going towards a better future for a child with whom they have an ongoing relationship; and that in itself seems more likely if the role of fatherhood was not so deeply discounted that a man's child can be adopted out of his reach without warning or recourse.

Okay, I admit it -- I really love this time of year. There's something about the sounds of a leather ball bouncing on a hardwood floor and that sweet swish when a shot kisses the net that makes me lose focus on just about everything but basketball. It's March Madness -- when college basketball takes center stage.

Basketball has been important to me since I was in grade school. I remember the day my brother showed me his first pair of black low-top Converse All Stars, just like the Boston Celtics wore back in the day. I was only nine years old, but the fact that my idols wore those shoes made me really want my own pair. That was back in the early 1960s. It didn't take long before the shoe companies caught on to this marketing potential.

Now the major suppliers of sports shoes have their footprints all over collegiate athletics. The American Progress Action Fund's Think Progress wants these companies to step up and promote "Graduation Madness." Nearly half of the teams in this year's Division I NCAA tournament do not meet the minimum academic requirements set by the NCAA. This isn't a new issue. Far too many college programs for far too long have emphasized winning on the court or the football field over achieving in the classroom. Why worry about grades when so many young athletes leave college before graduating to pursue professional careers? Some people think it makes sense -- why should a young basketball player with great talent risk his chances with the NBA by getting hurt while playing in college? Yet, the statistics show that only a tiny percentage of the kids we'll cheer on over the next few weeks of this year's NCAA tournament will actually have a shot at a professional career.

That's why completing college is so important for the vast majority of young athletes. That's why Think Progress wants companies like Reebok, Nike, and Adidas to start paying more attention to academic achievement for our young athletes.

Think about that while you watch the tournament. I know I will.

Update note: The Senate approved the Specter-Harkin amendment on March 16, 73-27.

On Thursday, the Senate will vote on an amendment to increase funding for education and social service programs by $7 billion. The bipartisan amendment, led by Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), could provide funding for after-school programs, mentoring, job training and a host of other important services for children, youth and families; failure to pass this amendment will likely result in cuts to many effective programs.

America's Promise says the amendment has a strong chance of passing, but needs additional support. If you call your Senator's office (Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121), here's what you can say:

Hello. My name is _______ . I am calling to encourage the Senator to vote for the Specter-Harkin amendment. This amendment will provide critical funding to programs that serve children and youth throughout our state. Without this funding, many effective programs -- afterschool programs, mentoring, education and others-- could face harmful cuts. Young people in my community and my organization who need these programs would appreciate the Senator's support of this amendment. Thank you.

Right after World War II Congress created the National School Lunch Program as a “measure of national security.” It was a direct response to the fact that many of the young men responding to the World War II draft were rejected due to conditions arising from serious nutritional deficiencies.

Now the Associated Press reports that the Army is finding it hard to find qualified new recruits because the majority of the 32 million Americans who are 17 to 24 years old, prime age for new recruits, are too overweight, too uneducated, too flawed in some way.

Advocates for quality preschools have made a strong case for investing early to ensure that kids get the start they need to be school-ready.

Isn't it time we made the same arguments, and the same investments, in making sure older children stay healthy and engaged and learning in school so they can graduate with the skills they need? We can't keep our communities safe, our families healthy and our economy competitive -- and our armed forces up to speed -- when we're losing a third or more of our high school students before they complete their high school education. Yet Congress is now considering a budget that would cut funds for job training, education and opportunities for young people to learn and serve.

It's time to stop playing games with the federal budget and put the money where it's needed.

Facing politically painful budget choices, House conservatives and Senate moderates are heading in different directions.

Determined to cut spending at all costs, House conservatives are demanding offsets for new hurricane recovery spending for the Gulf that is included in a $91.1 billion supplemental spending bill headed for the House floor Wednesday. They'll put Gulf recovery funds on the table for offsets but refuse to require tax expenditures to meet the same offset requirements.

In the Senate this week, Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) are planning to offer an amendment to the Budget Resolution that would provide an additional $7 billion for education and health programs. The money would help prevent budget cuts to key health and education programs by allowing Congress to restore funding for those programs to Fiscal Year 2005 levels without requiring off-setting cuts in other accounts.

Six years ago, Congress authorized the National Children's Study, an ambitious plan to follow 100,000 children from before birth to the age of 21. It's intended to provide high-quality longitudinal data on how environmental factors affect children's health and development, and to look at why conditions like asthma, autism, obesity, and childhood cancers are on the rise.

Last fall, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development announced that the study would be launched in seven sites.

This spring, President Bush has proposed eliminating the study to save money. It's expected that the 2007 launch would cost about $69 billion.

Study director Peter Scheidt says the work would be cost-effective, because childhood illnesses cost the nation so much -- in emergency room visits, special education costs, diabetes treatment, etc.

This national study would provide us with exactly the kind of solid data we need to get a handle on how our rapidly changing environment is affecting our children's prospects and health. Here's hoping that when the dust from the budget battle settles, it will go forward.