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New York, NY - Cuts Slash Pre-Kindergarten Programs |
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New York, NY - Parents who enrolled their children in full-day pre-kindergarten at day care centers might find themselves searching for new spots.
City funding for community-based groups to provide pre-K has been slashed from $5 million to $2.6 million for this year, leading to about 300 fewer seats in 31 centers.
"This comes as a complete surprise," said Nancy Wackstein of United Neighborhood Houses, whose members operate numerous child-care centers.
Centers were alerted of the cuts yesterday after several weeks of talks between the City Council and Education Department about whether the funding could be restored in the budget. Officials stressed that even though there will be a loss at community-based centers, they are creating nearly 700 new full-day seats in public schools with $5 million in state money instead, bringing the total number of full-day seats to more than 14,000 citywide.
But that could be little comfort to parents who already enrolled in other facilities and will now have to try to find new spots at nearby schools or accept only half-day care.
The Riverdale Neighborhood House enrolled 76 kids based on its budget last year, but was told yesterday that it would have funding for only one class of 18.
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Jul 19, 2008 at 11:38 PM frustrated Says:
Many of you reading this may not realize that this may be you too! There have been many such programs in frum yeshivos and girls schools! Find out if you are included, if you are maybe you can relocate your child to a site that is frum and services not cut.