Santa Ana Gets $100,000 for Tutor Program

Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim) gave a check for $100,000 in state funds Tuesday to the Santa Ana Unified School District to help launch another after-school tutoring program.

The check was awarded at the learning center at the newly opened Wallace Davis Elementary School in central Santa Ana. The money will be used to open a similar center at a yet-to-be-determined school site later this year or early next year.

The new center will be one of five operated by the Think Together organization in Santa Ana.

Such learning centers try to fill a void that the children of working poor parents have in after-school learning through tutoring and parental involvement, said Jewel Loff, development director for Think Together.

Learning centers can bring additional resources, including computer labs, to financially strapped schools, Loff said. Students and volunteer tutors build relationships that, because of the volunteers’ often disparate backgrounds, can open up new “windows to the world” for students, she added.

Correa sought the funding because he was impressed with the Davis Learning Center and wanted to see it expand to another campus in Santa Ana, said Chris Leo, Correa’s chief of staff.

“We think they’ve shown some results in helping kids,” Leo said. “It’s great to see this after-school void being filled by people who want to help kids.”