In the midst of Mayor Bloomberg’s threats to drastically cut funding for childcare services, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio took part in the first “Daycare Provider for a Day” program by spending the morning with Linnette Ebanks, a daycare provider who educates and cares for pre-school children at Little People's Retreat Group Day Care in Brooklyn.
“Seeing firsthand how childcare providers help our children learn and grow is all the evidence you need that the Mayor’s budget has the wrong priorities,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. “Today I was proud to spend a morning walking in the shoes of Linnette Ebanks and tomorrow I will continue to fight for her and the thousands of working families that depend on child care.”
The Mayor’s Executive Budget would slash $57 million from childcare services and close 110 daycare centers city-wide—including 55 in Brooklyn alone. A map of these daycare centers is included below.
View Daycare Centers At Risk of Closing in a full screen map
Public Advocate Delivers Thousands of Signatures to Mayor from Parents Opposing Childcare Cuts
Parents oppose closing 110 daycare centers, eliminating daycare for thousands of kids
At a City Hall rally on June 7th, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio delivered 3,773 signatures to Mayor Bloomberg from parents opposing unprecedented cuts to childcare. The petitions were collected by organizers from Public Advocate de Blasio’s office from parents at daycare centers, including some of the 110 centers that will be eliminated by Mayor Bloomberg’s budget. The Mayor’s proposals will slash services for as many as 7,000 children, according to the Citizens’ Committee for Children.
“We need to be committed as a city to preparing our kids to learn on that first day of school. That’s something every parent knows and certainly something an ‘Education Mayor’ should understand,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. “This budget consigns an entire generation of New York City kids to inferior childcare—and in some cases no childcare at all—during those first critical years of their development. The parents of this city cannot let that happen.”
The childcare cuts will eliminate the Priority 5 and 6 programs which provide vouchers for daycare services to working parents and those enrolled in job training. The drastic cuts will require the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to provide much more limited childcare services by closing 110 daycare centers across the city and requiring increased co-payments. In many instances childcare services will be shifted to cheaper providers whose programs are shorter in duration and provide less individual attention and instruction due to larger class sizes.
The signatures delivered by Public Advocate de Blasio put the total collected by a broad coalition of childcare advocates to over 30,000. Public Advocate de Blasio gathered the signatures as part of his campaign to make children a priority in this year’s budget. He has also collected over 5,200 petition signatures against the proposed firing of over 4,100 teachers.
