Brooklyn, NY – Once again Priority 7 vouchers are near the end of the line.
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The Bloomberg Administration mailed out letters on Friday, informing the struggling families of 2,200 children – most of them orthodox Jewish – that their subsidized childcare will end on Dec. 31, the middle of the school year.
A coalition of City Council members from Brooklyn is furious and has asked Mayor Michael Bloomberg for a meeting to get the painful decision reversed. Two members of the coalition, Councilmen David Greenfield and Steven Levin, recently staved off a City Hall attempt to end the program Nov. 26, a move that would have defied a the mayor’s prior commitment to fund the program at least through the end of 2010.
“The Administration has chosen to abandon the families in dire need of Priority 7 vouchers and the institutions whose lives depend on them. When government talks about a ‘safety net’, this is clearly part of it. I don’t comprehend why this Administration feels somehow that Orthodox families are less in need of critical support for their children,” Councilman Lew Fidler said. The remark was part of a press release from Councilman David Greenfield.
During the difficult budget preparation process earlier this year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) slated the Priority 7 program for elimination. In response to pressure from Brooklyn’s Council members and others, the mayor agreed to renew the program for a half-year, through December, then negotiate whether funding could continue for the rest of the school year.
Mr. Greenfield, Mr. Fidler and Council members Steve Levin, Brad Lander, and Letitia James demanded a meeting with Mr. Bloomber after finding out that the Administration was axing the program without further discussion. In the two weeks since then, needy families have been given notice they’ll soon be without afterschool care for their children, but no date has been offered for talks.
ACS provides free or subsidized day care and afterschool care for different categories of low-income families. The care is provided in public schools or ACS-contracted centers. Orthodox Jewish families, however, have cultural barriers to accessing services in these settings. Vouchers enable families to get the same service at non-ACS locations such as yeshivos. Priority 7 vouchers are for families that need daily respite due to a hardship.
The Council members’ offices have been getting flooded with calls from frantic parents, uncertain about their childcare options because Priority 7 will soon run out.
“Thousands of Brooklyn families rely on Priority 7 vouchers for essential child care. It’s totally unacceptable that Mayor Bloomberg would send them termination letters … just six months after he agreed to extend them … without even answering our letter requesting a meeting with him to talk about potential alternatives,” Councilman Brad Lander said, expressing the Coalition’s message.
The Priority 7 closures come as the city tangles with a mid-year $2 billion deficit. Mayor Bloomberg has ordered all city agencies to knock down spending 5.4 percent for this fiscal year, which started July 1 and runs through June 30.
The 2009-2010 full-year budget for Priority 7 vouchers was $12 million. The half year budget for this year was $6 million. The Brooklyn Council members opposing the Priority 7 axing argue that the program is not fair game for cost-cutting.
“Children’s lives will be disrupted when they are pulled out of day care classrooms in the new year. These vouchers simply help so many families by ensuring access to quality childcare and afterschool programs,” said Councilwoman Letitia James. “In terms of the big picture, the growth and safety of our children is far more important than the small amount of money that the city will save by terminating this program.”
In recent years, Priority 7 has become the default option for reducing ACS’s budget shortfall.
“While other programs are recommended for funding reductions, Priority 7 has consistently been targeted for complete elimination at the expense of a single ethnic community, despite that community’s overwhelming need for publicly funded childcare,” Councilman Greenfield states in his release.
A 2008 report published by ACS noted that the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods of Boro Park and Williamsburg, where the majority of Priority 7 vouchers are distributed, had the largest unmet need for publicly funded childcare, according to Mr. Greenfield.
“And, by ACS’ own admission, 92.1 percent of the 2,200 children receiving Priority 7 vouchers are living below 100 percent of the poverty level,” Mr. Greenfield wrote.
On Oct. 25, Council members Greenfield and Levin met with Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs to discuss extending funding for Priority 7 Childcare Vouchers for the remainder of the fiscal year, through June 2011. Deputy Mayor Gibbs told them she was unwilling to discuss extending the program, Mr. Greenfield said.
Furthermore, Ms. Gibbs declared that a unilateral decision had been reached to terminate the program earlier than the six months agreed upon in June. Letters informing parents that Priority 7 would end in late November were to go out the next day. After tense negotiations, the two Councilmen succeeded in keeping the program open until Dec. 31.
The next day the coalition of five Brooklyn Council members hand delivered a letter to Mayor Bloomberg requesting a meeting to discuss the future of Priority 7. After parents were notified, the mayor consented to a meeting but hasn’t responded with a specific date.
Priority received half-year funding in the past two fiscal year budgets, with reprieves through the end of the year coming each time. Those outcomes came through tenacious advocacy from Council members, askanim, and parents. The battle this time could be even more uphill, given the fact that the mayor is in his last term, with no need for election bargaining chips.
“We were shocked that we received less than 24 hours notice of the program’s early termination,” Councilman Greenfield said. “Quite frankly, we were floored that instead of engaging in honest negotiations, the city was reneging on a prior agreement that we reached in good faith.”
Don’t these ehrliche City Councilman get it??? The voters have said NO to more subsidies, NO to more spending. The city is broke. Stop these childcare and other subsidies asap and let the parents take responsibility for their own children. The politicians should help organize private charities to provide the tzadakah for truly needy families but get your hands out of our pockets and taking our tax money to give away to others. Those days are over. Kol hakovod to Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Christie in NJ and other political leaders showing some real courage.
Look, they need the money to build islands on Fort Hamilton Parkway. For what the mayor wants (for bike lanes and islands) he finds money because to him that comes first.
Here u go again, our beloved Bloomberg..
Just remember that we voted for Donovan the Mayor’s candidate.
is this specifically after school babysitting or tutoring?
do the public schools receive this or a similar version ?
The frum community’s strong support in the last election for those who want drastic spending cuts will not make it likely that this program will be spared.
Didn’t I just get a press release in the mail from our councilman david greenfeld that he delivered priority seven?
I voted for sniderman and other democrats because I pay my taxes and went it to go also to the needed and not only to public schools and unions but lots of boro parkers mostly those who receive govrement assistance voted for the republicans because they want my taxes to go to the rich
so please explain it to me. First we are told to vote for david greenfield for city council because he is close to the mayor and because he will get us from the Mayor the vouhers. then are told to vote for donovan because otherwise the mayor will take away the vouhers. so we do it as well and vote for donovan and then we get the letter informing us that no more vouhers for you suckers!!! so i ask, where is our political leadership? why are our politicians lying to us for our votes? shame on you and shame on us!
I’m dumb founded, where is our former Councilman Simcha Felder? You knew how to talk to the Mayor and get him to restore service.
This is what happens when the most important issue to you is money. No one wants to pay taxes but some of us understand that some of that tax revenue goes to helping the poor, the disabled, the elderly so we vote with our conscience, not our wallets. Unfortunately, as we can see from this past election, more people are concerned only with spending so we’ll be seeing more dramatic cuts in the programs our community needs. It’s going to be a difficult few years.
Now we all see why Dov Hikind did not endorse Bloomberg. The Mayor can do whatever he wishes since he is not going to run again.
Ur taxes to go to the rich?? What in heavens name r u talking bout. Elaborate.
Now you know what reward you all get for being so hostile to Bloomberg.
how about doing the same kind of cutting for the public schools?
i dont understand why yeshivas are not appreciated by our elected officials. if all the children that go to yeshivas went to public schools a lot more money would have to be spent by the board of ed. they would have to build additional schools, hire additional teachers and so on.
am i the only one who thinks this way?
yeshiva parents are saving the board of ed millions of dollars .
yeshivas should be able to get some funding instead of cuts.
So, Bloomberg did’nt keep his word. “Al Tivtechu Binidivim!”
That’s what liberal politicians do. They get you to sell your soul for programs; then they take waay the programs and laugh at you.
no surprise in this corner.just bloomy being bloomy.
Its disgusting to see all these yiddin here on VIN whining about losing handouts from the city. This is what you all wished for with Paladino (or did you really believe he would only cut subsidies for goyim and MO yidden with small families). As the other article here on VIN today quotes an Israeli MK as saying to the frumies: “Stop having kids you can’t afford, and stop looking to the government for handouts”.
Of course most of the kids are orthodox, its because we don’t sent our kids to the public schools… But we pay taxes (and tickets)
This is not the time to discuss who should be paying what and why parents should stay home with their own kids. This is the middle of a school year and this is a crisis. The only option is to put ALL this kids into the public school after school program and teach the mayor a lesson. HE will have to expend the same amount of money per child to keep the programs running in the PS buildings with more teachers to watch the kids there. Let him see that HE is not going to get a free ride out of this and HE did not figure out the solution. IF these children are entitled to after school care and day care, then they are entitled to it and if it means the Public school system will have to provide it, then so be it.
The PS system can’t force FRUM kids to eat treif nor can they force them to learn what the parents don’t want them to learn any more than they can force an Indian or Moslem child to eat anything agains their religion and customs. So they will still have to follow the parents wishes and instructions.
My neices and nephews are enrolled in this program and yet my brother and sister in law do not work and have never worked. The kinder should be staying with them instead of an after school care program. It should be for working parents only, no?