The latest victims of state budget cuts are 8,000 at-risk children -- 500 in Richland and Lexington counties -- who have been attending after-school tutoring and mentoring programs.

The S.C. Department of Social Services is cutting its $10.5 million contract with the S.C. Communities in Schools program, effective May 31. The department says its own state budget has been cut by a third in the last three years -- from $128 million to $88 million -- and it must retreat to its core mission of protecting abused and neglected children.

Communities in Schools of S.C. is a nonprofit organization, with 131 after-school programs statewide. It is an umbrella over local organizations, such as Communities in Schools of the Midlands.

Administrators were scrambling late Thursday afternoon, calling schools to tell them their programs would be eliminated soon, most likely in two weeks.

"It's huge," said Joan Fail Hoffman, executive director of Communities in Schools of the Midlands. "It's huge, it hurts and ultimately who it hurts most is the children."

The Midlands organization provides programs at:

• Gilbert and Pelion middle schools in Lexington 1

• Cyril B. Busbee and Pine Ridge middle schools in Lexington 2

• Sandhills Middle School in Lexington 4

• Crayton and W.G. Sanders middle schools in Richland 1

• Dent and E.L. Wright middle schools in Richland 2.

The after-school programs are run by teachers and aides and feature volunteers who tutor or mentor. A key benefit is that the program also provides snacks, supplies and transportation home.

Overall, the state is experiencing its most bleak fiscal picture in recent memory. The General Assembly has been reluctant to raise taxes, and in fact, is hoping to lower them as a way to help stimulate the economy.

Rep. Rick Quinn, R-Richland, said he regrets the after-school programs are getting cut. But Quinn heads the Ways and Means subcommittee that writes the budget of all health agencies, and says it was a year with no easy answers.

"We made a priority for medical services for the disabled, seniors and children," Quinn said. "Consequently, some agencies got cut more than others."

The Midlands organization hopes to keep some presence in the middle schools by placing a coordinator there, to work with individual students, seek volunteers and troubleshoot.

But even that level of service will be difficult, Hoffman said. Of its $1.2 million annual budget, $800,000 comes from after-school DSS money.

The program anticipates laying off its 20 part-time teachers and aides who run the after-school programs.

Hoffman said she wishes voters and legislators understood that prevention pays.

At-risk middle-schoolers who do not have a place to go may run with the wrong crowd, get involved in crime, or get pregnant, she said. "To pay for a child born to a 14-year-old costs a lot more in the long run in taxes than it does to help prevent that 14-year-old from becoming pregnant in the first place."