THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605060032
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 134 lines
John L. Horton's welcome to the 'hood 3 1/2 years ago was two slashed tires and a bullet through his car window.
Guns and knives didn't scare away this straight-talking retired Marine. Horton stormed into the Oakleaf and Diggs Town public housing neighborhoods courtesy of an experimental state program to help single moms on welfare keep their children in school.
He hounded truant kids and their parents, knocking on doors and launching into tough-love lectures on the importance of education. It took more than a year, but he captured the communities' trust and respect.
``People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care,'' Horton, 55, says, reeling off one of his many one-liners meant to zing you between the eyes with reality. ``Some may think I was too hard on them, but as long as I'm knocking on your door, you know I still care.''
But much to the dismay of many who once eyed him with suspicion, the ``TAP man'' soon will no longer come knocking.
State funding for Horton's Truancy Action Program, or TAP, has dried up. The program was run this year for $53,000 through the city's Department of Human Services.
Unless another money source can be found, the program will end, and Horton will move out of his makeshift office in the Campostella Boys and Girls Club in Diggs Town at the end of the fiscal year June 30.
TAP was the local name given to a state pilot program called VITAL - Virginia's Incentives To Advance Learning - launched at three middle schools during former Democratic Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's administration.
Besides Lafayette-Winona Middle in Norfolk, schools in Richmond and Chesterfield County participated. The schools served as testing grounds for state officials who were searching for ways to reduce chronic truancy among children on welfare, a problem linked to school dropouts, delinquency and other social ills.
``It's bad losing the program,'' said Nicanor Williams, an eighth-grader from Diggs Town who has been on the honor roll at Lafayette-Winona Middle School during three years in the TAP program. ``It has inspired me to stay in school, and to see that there is a future. That's what TAP is about - that there is hope for the future.''
Jeanette Knight, whose grandson participated, voiced the sentiments of many: ``If I had the money to keep it going, I would.''
TAP has fallen victim to shifting political winds. Virginia has switched gears on welfare reform under Republican Gov. George F. Allen, replacing VITAL with a statewide program called ``Learnfare.''
While the two programs have similar goals - to keep kids in school so they'll learn how to become self-reliant, productive citizens - their approaches couldn't be more different.
TAP offered carrots: Parents who made sure their children attended school got a cash bonus - about $30 extra on average - in their monthly welfare check.
Learnfare applies a stick: Parents of chronic truants are threatened with loss of benefits for that child.
But the other big difference, at least for Norfolk's participants, is that Learnfare doesn't come with somebody like Horton, an advocate to encourage and cajole, to preach and push.
``He's put his entire heart and soul into this program, he's tireless,'' said John Kownack, assistant director of Social Services in Norfolk.
But, Kownack acknowledged, to expand TAP to include all of the city's 5,600 families on welfare would be pricey. Horton has worked with about 120 families a year in the two neighborhoods, helping kids and their parents find jobs, taking them on field trips, lending an ear when kids drop by his office after school.
``We'd need 48 people to do what he's doing,'' Kownack said.
The Allen administration defends the new approach.
``There is a stick there, but there's also a carrot: If you have your children go to school, they will develop self-sufficiency,'' said Clarence Carter, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services. The bonuses, he said, were ``disincentives'' to getting families off welfare.
Horton, who earns $28,000, has his own typically outspoken view: ``For what it takes to incarcerate two kids in Virginia you could pay for my salary and benefits and have some change left over. With this, you don't need the penitentiaries or the welfare system later.''
Statewide, 1,087 students in 862 families in the three middle schools have participated in the Wilder administration program.
In Norfolk, 289 Lafayette-Winona students have crossed paths with Horton, who visited the school every day to check on who was absent and to chat with teachers and students.
Local officials consider the program a success.
Each year, about 70 percent of the children have qualified for the incentive bonus by maintaining a C average and attending classes at least 90 percent of the time. More mothers joined the school PTA and participated in other activities with their children.
An important lesson learned is that ``families want to be responsible, they want their children to go to school,'' said Suzanne Puryear, director of Norfolk's Department of Human Services.
``Part of our challenge is to find out why children aren't in school and to build programs and resources around that,'' she said.
On a ``good day,'' Horton said, five or six TAP kids miss school; on a bad day, 15 or 20. He found that ``90 percent of the time kids don't show, it's because nobody made sure they came. I found out that kids who go to school and pass have their mothers' support.''
Katrina Owens, a TAP graduate who is an honor roll freshman at Lake Taylor High, said she missed a lot of school until her mother began making sure she got up early enough to catch the bus.
Rashauna Ward, a seventh-grader at Lafayette-Winona, said her grades improved from C's to A's and B's.
Rochelle Durham, a seventh-grader, said her mom usually gave her half of the bonus payment.
``I'd get my hair done or go to the mall or to the skating rink, or if somebody's birthday was coming up I'd buy them a nice birthday present,'' Rochelle said.
But while the extra cash was nice, parents and their children said the money wasn't that important.
``The program could continue without the extra benefits because it's helpful to the kids,'' said Betty Garrison, whose daughter is in TAP. ``It keeps them going, and it doesn't stigmatize them, like they're from the projects and aren't capable.''
Most valuable was the moral support from Horton and his assistant, Nadine Moody, who talked to girls about ``girl things'' and let them do chores around the office, participants said.
``Some of the bad kids on the street, now, you see coming to school and studying hard and trying to do well,'' Rashauna said.
``From where we come from you have to push for your goals and you can't let anything get in your way,'' Nicanor said. ``There's a whole lot of people and stuff out there like drug traffic and gang activity, and if you get involved it's hard to turn back.'' ILLUSTRATION: B\W Photo by CANDICE CUSIC/The Virginian-Pilot
Dominique Alston, a sixth-grader at Lafayette-Winona Middle school
and his mother, Priscilla, are in the Truancy Action Program.
KEYWORDS: TRUANCY PROGRAM LEARNFARE TAP WELFARE REFORM TRUANCY
ACTION PROGRAM
by CNB