Child care subsidy cuts less than feared

A gaggle of around two dozen children from the Hamilton Madison House and Chung Pak day care centers joined dozens of child care providers, day care center workers, parents, politicians and faith and community leaders on the steps of City Hall on June 7 to send their message to the mayor: don’t cut our child care. After a tumultuous budget process defined by intense member advocacy and scores of protest rallies, the City Council on June 29 adopted a budget for the coming year that includes a partial restoration of funding for child care subsidies for poor and working families.

The mayor had originally intended, in his preliminary budget released in the spring, to cut $91 million — equivalent to 16,500 subsidies — from funding for subsidized child care, but, under pressure from the UFT, other unions and child care advocacy groups, he restored $40 million of that amount on May 6.

The Council then restored an additional $13 million in its final budget at the end of June, reducing the final cut to subsidies to an estimated $38 million.

Tammie Miller, the chapter chair of the UFT’s Family Child Care Providers Chapter, praised the Council for its support.

“While child care is still losing a substantial amount of funding, the cut would have been much worse without the efforts of the Council to protect New York’s working parents and their children,” Miller said. “We owe them a great debt of gratitude.”

The UFT also played an important role in beating back the cut to subsidies and other hurtful budget cuts, calling on its members to participate in rallies, small and large, throughout the spring and summer.

In addition to attending demonstrations against the mayor’s threat to lay off 4,200 teachers, family child care providers also rallied on several occasions with their counterparts from the city’s day care centers, represented by District Council 1707.

Miller said these efforts influenced the Council’s decision to restore funds to the child care budget.

“Our members’ activism played a critical role in winning over both the City Council and the public to our side,” she said, thanking members for their support.

It is still unclear how the $38 million cut will be implemented, but the mayor has indicated that no children will lose access to care as a result of it. Miller said the cut is unlikely to affect family child care providers.