High-quality summer programs provide safe, enriching environments that help young people stay engaged, build skills and return to school ready to learn. City leaders, especially mayors, play a pivotal role in ensuring these opportunities are accessible to all families by leveraging city resources, funding partnerships and public visibility.
To spotlight one example of strong mayoral leadership in this space, NLC spoke with Madison, WI Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and Associate Superintendent of Strategy and Innovation at Madison Metropolitan School District Cindy Green.
National League of Cities: Mayor Rhodes-Conway, you’re a staunch supporter of out-of-school programs and you have a strong partnership with your local school district. Tell us what you have been up to this summer.
Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway: Spending time with kids in summer programs has been a tradition I’ve done for the last several years, and as eye opening as it has been, it’s also been really fun. I’ve seen programs at the zoo, teens building robots and this year I spent time with a Freedom School Harambee where the joy and community was palpable.
These kinds of visits are good for mayors because they really keep you on your toes. You think you’ve heard it all as a mayor then you get a question from a second grader about food safety, like I got after reading “Everybody Eats” at the Harambee, and you’ve got to think on your feet. Or you get quizzed about penguins and learn they can run 20 miles per hour! But seriously, if it’s a space that I feel joy and learning during just a few hours each summer, just think about the benefits of that kind of community each summer for kids. These are spaces we need to protect and expand.
NLC: We’ve heard that you have some innovative initiatives that are expanding access and improving the quality of summer programs in Madison.
Mayor Rhodes-Conway: Yes, we’ve been paying attention to data on what kids do during the summer, and like a lot of cities, right after the pandemic, youth were not engaged. Less than 20% of elementary kids who qualify for Free/Reduced Lunch were enrolled in any summer program in 2023. Once we saw that, we made a commitment that this is a problem we needed to solve.
One of the things we’re doing alongside the [school district] this year is a pilot at two community centers that we fund. The programming that occurs at these community centers is of such high quality that it would qualify as summer school if led by certified teachers. That would mean increased enrollment and state funding for our school district. Long story short, in partnership with our district, we worked to boost capacity of our nonprofit partners to make sure they meet the qualifications for summer school and now the district is offering a $325/student reimbursement to those centers and counting them as official Summer School sites.
“It’s a win-win-win: More enrollment for our school district, more money for our nonprofit providers and more opportunities for kids and families.”
What’s great, though, is the community centers aren’t leaving what they do best at the door to become a summer school site: they are integrating joy into summer school. Every site I visited talked about going to the pool or a big trip to the zoo. When we each lean into our strengths and work together, good things happen for kids.
Associate Superintendent Cindy Green: That’s right. We are, as a district, always looking for ways to rethink where and how learning happens, especially in the summer. This partnership has allowed us to expand opportunities without adding barriers — students are taught by school district educators, enrolled in our summer semester and learning in places they and their families trust. That kind of continuity is powerful, and it’s worth growing.
NLC: This is so exciting, and is evidence of how strong partnerships can truly impact programs, and ultimately, the lives of children and families. However, summer learning is not something that every mayor feels responsible for. Can you tell us what you see as the mayor’s role in supporting summer learning programs?
Mayor Satya: I’m all about letting our schools take lead responsibility for kids during the school day and offering to support their leadership, but when kids are out of school — during the school year and the summer — it’s in our best interest to be part of the solution. And we’re positioned well to do so because of how we collect data and because we fund and have relationships with dozens of youth programs.
Now things can get challenging when working across municipal, school and nonprofit leadership. So, one of the things we did, is we paid our two pilot sites up-front, enough to subsidize the cost of them hiring the credentialed teachers they needed to qualify for the reimbursement. This kind of pilot has never happened before, and I’m not aware of many other places that are doing things like this. So, frankly, our nonprofit providers were hesitant because if the reimbursement didn’t come through, the additional staffing costs would be hard to recover from.
So, we paid $6,000 up front — that was privately raised, by the way — and made a commitment to keep the pilot sites whole if necessary. And now, this small pilot is probably going to generate $30,000 new dollars for those programs this summer, and, more importantly, more kids enrolled in better programs.
Associate Superintendent Green: This is a powerful example of what’s possible when schools and communities work together. By partnering, we’re bringing summer learning directly to where students live, and to spaces where they’re already known, supported and celebrated. It’s not just about access to instruction, it’s about belonging.
NLC: What advice do you have for mayors interested in starting initiatives like this?
Mayor Satya: Madison is a city that values youth programs, and I think the dividends of those investments are worth it to any city out there. It wasn’t just our dollars that got things started, it was our reputation for forging strong partnerships. My advice to other mayors is visit some summer learning programs, have some fun and think about how you can use your power and leverage to expand those spaces.
Explore More Afterschool and Summer Learning Resources
NLC has more than 20 years of experience and knowledge working with cities and municipal leaders to help strengthen local efforts to create, expand and improve afterschool and summer learning opportunities. Visit our resource hub to find more resources that will help you grow the afterschool and summer learning programs in your community.
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