THOMPSON: CITY HALL MUST NOT SLASH 3,000 CHILD CARE VOUCHERS
New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. today joined with City Councilmembers Bill de Blasio and David Weprin and child care advocates to oppose City Hall's plan to slash 3,000 child care vouchers from the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) budget.
"At a time when we many families across this city, our neighbors and friends, are struggling against formidable economic odds, this cut defies logic because these vouchers were designed to help those most in need," Thompson said. "Families take part in this voucher program because they want to know their children are being cared for when they go out to look for work and to earn a living."
Thompson fired off letters - available at www.comptroller.nyc.gov - to the Mayor and City Council Speaker, demanding that they restore funding for this vital program in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget, which is on the cusp of approval. Joining Thompson at a news conference today in opposition to the plan were Councilmembers de Blasio and David Weprin and advocates.
"This budget leaves out thousands of children and their families," de Blasio said. "Voucher programs provide children with the educational environment they need and parents with a vital resource they depend on. Turning our backs on these families now when times are tough will undermine their future and the future of their children."
"This is the worst time to hurt families who most need this program," added Weprin, Chair of the City Council Finance Committee. "Parents have enough to worry about, and child care should be the least of their worries. Going through with these cuts would create a hardship for children and families across this City."
ACS provides various types of child care, including care in group centers and in homes. For families who meet required income limits, the agency allocates child care according to a priority code system. There are nine priority codes, with code 1 being the highest priority. Some child care is directly funded by ACS through contracts, while other child care providers operate independently of ACS. If a family eligible for ACS child care chooses to use an independent provider, ACS may issue a voucher to the family to defray the cost.
The plan is to completely eliminate child care vouchers in the lowest priority codes, 7, 8 and 9. Code 7 vouchers, which cover children whose families, though income-eligible, are not involved with ACS but rather are referred by community-based social service agencies.
The Mayor's Preliminary budget reduced the number of code 7 vouchers by 860, and his Executive Budget calls for an additional reduction of 1,140 vouchers in this category, bringing the total reduction of code 7 vouchers to 2,000.
Additionally, City Hall plans to eliminate 1,000 vouchers for codes 8 and 9, those involving children whose parents are ill or incapacitated, and children whose parents are looking for work.
"These cuts are going to hurt some of the City's most vulnerable families at a time when they can least afford it," said Betty Holcomb, Policy Director at Child Care, Inc. "Early childhood services are the best two-generation, anti-poverty program ever invented. Children prepare to succeed in school and parents can make it to work. We already have more than 40,000 families eligible for vouchers who are on waiting lists. We shouldn't put several thousand more children and families at risk by cutting these services in next year's budget."
"Parental choice is a key factor when parents select appropriate early education services. We must not remove this component from our subsidy options," said Andrea Anthony, Executive Director of the Day Care Council of New York, Inc. "The Day Care Council strongly supports the position of our City Comptroller and City Council leaders here today to keep this program in place and retain every parent's right to freely choose the child care provider that's right for their child."
ACS has notified the City Council that children of parents who will no longer be eligible for these vouchers can seek center-based care in ACS-funded child care centers. It is unclear; however, how many slots are available at such centers.
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