Blog for 7-14-08

As we continue to languish in the summer heat and humidity, it has been too hot to hold a cogent thought ; much less actively participate in reacting to the draconian cuts to our base line services that the mayor and the city council have agreed on in the over 59 billion dollar 2008-09 budget for New York City.

For the child care community this is almost certainly a signal that the Administration for Children’s Services planned Project Full Enrollment (PFE) will be implemented. Why? Because those cuts have now already been factored into the budget; the city is compelled to consolidate and downsize programs.

Still, the City Council’s General Welfare Committee, Chaired by Councilmember Bill deBlasio, continues to act as though they are concerned about the plight of the child care programs, while knowing full well that the deal is done.

So far the committee has held several hearings and meetings concerning this issue but has not given any indication that it is prepared to go to bat, in any significant way, on behalf of the over 300 publicly funded child care programs in NYC that will be seriously impacted by the PFE initiative starting in September. The City Council passed Resolution 1415 – requesting that ACS produce certain information and documents to justify it plans for Project Full Enrollment (PFE). And it passed Resolution 1420-2008 requesting the Bloomberg administration to place a moratorium on the implementation of PFE.

The problem with this is that City Council resolutions are little more than suggestions. While the child care community may be lulled into believing that they are getting strong support from the City Council, they are in fact getting nothing more than a distraction from thinking of more meaningful ways to save themselves.

Unfortunately, this current City Council has demonstrated time and again that it is not willing to strongly oppose Mayor Bloomberg who has made it abundantly clear that he has no interest in poor and working class citizens in New York City. So while we get several man made waterfalls throughout the city, our elected officials continue their plans to close senior citizens and child care programs this fall.