De Blasio, Stringer are 'providers for a day'

Gary Schoichet

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer with Marcia Biggs Morrison and the children at her M&M Christian Day Care, in Saint Albans, Queens.

Micah Landau

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio visits with children at Linnette Ebanks’ Little People Retreat in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Few New Yorkers know just how hard the city’s 28,000 family child care providers work, caring for and educating the children of others in their homes. Two of those who do know, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, highlighted providers’ hard work for all to see when they visited providers’ homes and lent a hand as part of the UFT’s “Provider for a Day” event on June 9.

Their visits came in the midst of debate over a $51 million cut to child care funding in Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed city budget. The mayor and the City Council must negotiate a final budget by June 30.

While Stringer worked on jigsaw puzzles with the toddlers at Marcia Biggs Morrison’s program, M&M Christian Day Care, in Saint Albans, Queens, de Blasio visited Linnette Ebanks’ Little People Retreat in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he read to the children from “Froggy Gets Dressed.”

It wasn’t all work for the two elected officials, however. They got “provided for,” as it were, too. At Morrison’s program, the children inverted the typical adult-child relationship, reading “Finding Nemo” storybooks to Stringer, who helped them with the more difficult words. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, de Blasio was treated to a rousing rendition of “Lean on Me” and an original play performed by the children for their guest.

Ebanks described to de Blasio the impact the mayor’s proposed cut to child care funding will have on providers and the children and parents who depend on their services. Low-income parents fear they will have nowhere safe to leave their children if the city cuts funding for subsidized care, she said.

Ebanks also said that providers, who on average earn just $19,000 a year, will suffer undue hardship as they lose clients.

“I’m already a poor person. I’m not rich,” she said. “We’re underpaid and overworked, but we still need to eat and pay our bills.”

Duly impressed by the achievements of the children in Ebanks’ care, many of whom are reading, writing and studying arithmetic at a very young age, de Blasio spoke passionately about the importance of early childhood education and the need to preserve city funding for family child care.

“We’re making an investment now that’s going to pay off later,” the public advocate said. “They’re going to get a great education and go on to give back to our society.”

In addition, de Blasio and Tammie Miller, the UFT Family Child Care Providers Chapter chair, who also attended the visit, presented Ebanks and the children with dozens of new books on behalf of themselves and UFT President Michael Mulgrew.

Miller said she was very pleased with the day and thanked both de Blasio and Stringer for their support for New York’s child care providers.