Video: March 5th Campaign Launch

Parents, advocates, and elected officials gathered at City Hall Monday the 5th to launch a citywide campaign against the Mayor’s massive cuts to child care and after-school programs. The newly-formed Campaign for Children released an impact brief titled New York City’s Diminishing Investment in NYC Children and Working Families, showing the Bloomberg Administration’s 5-year defunding of the child care and after-school systems.

After years of cuts that have dramatically decreased working families’ access to children’s and youth services, the Mayor is once again proposing devastating cuts to both child care and after-school programs in his FY 2013 budget. The Mayor’s Preliminary Budget, coupled with changes from the EarlyLearn NYC and Out-of-school Time (OST) RFPs, would eliminate 15,900 child care slots and slash after-school program capacity for 31,800 children. All told, more than 47,000 children and their families will lose access to these essential programs. This is the fifth straight year that the Mayor has cut child care and after-school programs. Added to year after year of cuts, the Mayor’s latest proposal will result in 90,000 fewer children having access to these programs than in 2009 – a 61% decrease.

Check out the videos from the event —

Advocates for children and afterschool programs:

Wayne Ho, Executive Director, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, and also the Emcee
Richard Buery, President and CEO, Children’s Aid Society
Nancy Wackstein, Executive Director, United Neighborhood House
Nancy Maxwell, parent with children in child care and OST