GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

One Bronx public school parent wants to make an unusual barter with Mayor Bloomberg.

If the city brings back after-school programs for her four children in the Bronx, Evelyn Rivera will stop smoking, she told reporters from AM New York today.

“Stress brings the cigarettes back every time: Reduce the stress of New Yorkers and they’ll stop,” she said.

Principals’ budgets are being cut by 4 percent this year to save the city $313 million. Since 2007, schools have seen a total cut of 12 percent and many schools said goodbye to their after-school programs years ago.

As after-school programs have fallen victim to budget cuts at many schools, one program to build science and math skills has found an unusual home — the New York City Housing Authority.

Once a week after school, groups of 8 through 12-year-old residents in ten public housing complexes around the city gather to learn about bridges, skyscrapers and environmentally sustainable building.

Watch an audio slideshow of students, all residents of the Bronx’s Gun Hill Houses, at work in the BRIDGES program (the punny acronym stands for “Build, Research, Invent, Design, Grow and Explore through Science”), run in a partnership between the non-profit Salvadori Center and NYCHA community centers:

Lucy Friedman, president of The After-School Corporation (TASC), which advocates for and supports after-school programs in New York and beyond, will take your questions at the Times.

So far, commenters have asked for her opinion on federal education priorities under Obama, whether there are programs that support parents as well as children, what the economic downturn means for TASC, and what role after-school programs can play at “failing” schools:

As part of No Child Left Behind, children at some “failing” schools are eligible for free after-school tutoring at places like Sylvan Learning Center. We see, however, dramatic underutilization of these services — only ~3% of eligible children enroll. Are educational after-school programs a solution to failing schools? If so, what will it take to get more children to participate?