Date/Time
Date(s) - Sunday, Sep 13
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Location
Cadman Plaza Park

Categories

• Child Recreation

Every child deserves a good start, and every educator deserves a safe place to work. C is in crisis. Families and children depend on early childhood education. We know that early childhood education is one of the best tools to help the lowest-income communities. As President Barack Obama said in 2015, “We know that … early childhood education works. That is one way to break the legacy of racism and poverty. If a 3-year-old, 4-year old kid is in an environment of love and is getting a good meal and has a teacher that is trained in early childhood development and is hearing enough words and is being engaged enough, they can get to where a middle-class kid is pretty quickly … What hasn’t happened is us making a collective commitment to do it.” The time to make this commitment is NOW!

At a time when we are relying on essential workers more and more, childcare is becoming even more important than it once was. At the same time, childcare is continuously underfunded and the stakes are even higher. Schools are not able to open fully, but childcare is expected to fill in the gaps. Public schools are funded whether they are open or not, but childcare experienced a huge loss of income this summer. The childcare industry has been eroded for decades, and we are witnessing programs closing every day. It’s time to invest in our future.

Here are some highlights from the Child Care Initiative:

• The Governor’s 2020 budget fails to address the state’s deepening child care crisis; offering NO new funding for child care, not even enough to maintain the state’s woefully inadequate current services.
• The high cost of child care creates significant economic hardship for New York’s working families with young children. Nine out of 10 find the cost of quality care unaffordable.
• Yet four out of five families eligible for help paying for child care are denied support.
• Families with babies and toddlers face the worst challenges. Care for an infant in a child care center can easily top $20,000 a year.
• Insufficient state investment in pre-K and child care threatens the stability of programs and their ability to appropriately compensate teachers and staff.
• The median wage for a child care educator outside of New York City is less than $27,000.
• The Governor’s proposal to add just $15 million for pre-K for 3- and 4- year-olds is unlikely to add even the 2,000 seats he promises, and falls dismally short of rising need and unmet demand. Scores of districts gave formal notice of interest in adding pre-K last fall.
• Four out of five 4-year-olds outside of New York City – nearly 77,000 – still have no full-day pre-K.
• The failure to expand early learning opportunities shortchanges dual language learners and those with special needs, as well as homeless children, all entitled by law to quality education.

Additionally, the CARES Act earmarked $163.6 million of dollars for Childcare. NY State has mismanaged these funds, holding on to them while early education programs are forced to close. Governor Cuomo set aside $20 million for grants to existing programs and $45 million for programs to expand classrooms. There are additional funds allocated to childcare in the Federal bill that Governor Cuomo is sitting on. Governor Cuomo, release these funds NOW!

March with us, rally with us, and tell NY State why childcare is important for you and your family.

This event is hosted by the Brooklyn Coalition of Early Childhood Programs