by Schuyler Center | Apr 5, 2022 | Child Care, Legislative
By Dede Hill, Director of Policy
This is the moment for NYS leaders to invest in making child care accessible to all low income New York families while paying the child care workforce a thriving wage.
There are signals that New York is poised to make a significant $3 billion investment in child care in the 2022-23 New York State Budget.
Such an investment will transform the child care system; change the lives of many low-income New York families; diminish the workforce challenges facing businesses by getting parents, particularly women, back to work; strengthen the state’s economy; and stabilize the reeling child care sector.
All of this is possible if the final budget truly includes $3 billion, and if the funds are wisely invested in transformation.
Many New York families are currently left out of and unable to access subsidized child care due to insufficient public funding, onerous rules, and a lack of vision. Those left out include:
- Parents who are self-employed or work in non-traditional jobs. To gain access to subsidized child care, a family must be able to prove their income through paystubs, bank statements, and other traditional means. If parents work for cash, or are self-employed without well-kept records, or hold gig-economy jobs, they often cannot qualify.
- Parents who work fluctuating hours. These families may secure assistance, but are often unable to find a provider able to accommodate a shifting schedule. At present, a child can attend subsidized care only during the exact hours the parent is working. The moment a parent’s shift ends, the parent must pick up the child, whether the child is napping, eating lunch, or engaged in an educational activity. This is bad for young children for whom stable schedules and trusted caregivers are key to their well-being, and impossible for most providers, often operating with economic margins so razor thin that they must have every seat consistently filled to stay afloat financially.
Disproportionately represented among these families are the parents of the 35% of New York children in immigrant families. While nearly all of these children are technically eligible for subsidized child care, if their parents cannot prove their work status, or cannot find a provider who can accommodate fluctuating or extended hours, the child’s eligibility is in name only.
- The estimated 30,000 young children with immigration status that renders them ineligible for subsidized child care. Many of these parents are the essential workers that kept New York running during the darkest days of the pandemic, at great personal risk.
- Others families who are left out: families where a parent or caregiver is unemployed, disabled, or attending school. We must not leave these families behind.
The solution is clear: Make child care available to all children, just like public school, beginning this year with all low-income families.
This is also the year for New York to start paying the child care workforce a thriving wage; a wage that reflects the immeasurable value of their work.
The child care workforce is the essential workforce behind the workforce, the first teachers of our children. And yet, these care providers – nearly entirely women, largely women of color – are paid so little they live in poverty at twice the rate of New York workers in general.
Without a significant and sustained wage hike for the child care workforce, expanded access to child care subsidies will mean nothing because there will not be enough providers to meet demand.
We are hearing that New York leaders are reluctant to knock down barriers to equitable child care access because it would be administratively difficult. While true, it is shocking that our leaders would let administrative obstacles stand in the way of a historic transformation of our child care system.
If ever there was a moment for New York State to lead with courage and vision, this is it.
by Schuyler Center | Mar 21, 2022 | Legislative, News
Senate and Assembly One-House Budget Proposals as they Intersect with Schuyler Center’s Most Urgent Budget Priorities
Schuyler Center’s Next Look is an initial assessment of how the New York Senate and Assembly State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2022-23 One-House Budget proposals would address some of the issues most critical for the health and well-being of New York’s low-income families and children and all New Yorkers living on the margins.
With two years of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating existing inequities, it is essential that New York adopt a final budget that centers and prioritizes New Yorkers who face the challenges of poverty, disability, ill-health, racial discrimination, and poor mental health.
Next Look highlights State budget actions that hold real opportunity—and threat—for New York children, families, and marginalized New Yorkers. We ask our New York leaders to ensure the final enacted budget seizes these opportunities, and takes all steps necessary to curtail the threats. We will continue to study the budget proposals and work to secure a just final budget that sets-up all New Yorkers to thrive.
Read Schuyler Center’s Next Look analysis of one-house budget bills.
by Helen Smith | Apr 23, 2021 | Legislative
In the first week of April 2021, the New York State Legislature and Governor reached agreement on the 2021-22 New York State Budget. The final 2021-22 New York State Budget contains some extraordinary investments in New York State children and families. We remain concerned, however, about families left behind and essential services that again see inadequate investment as they did last year (and many years prior). Schuyler Center’s Last Look is our assessment of the enacted State budget and how it advances priorities that improve the health and well-being of all New Yorkers, especially children and families living in poverty.
You can also read Schuyler Center’s Next Look at the NYS 2021-22 Budget: Senate and Assembly One-House Budget Proposals as they Intersect with Schuyler Center’s Most Urgent Budget Priorities, released in March 2021. In February, the Schuyler Center shared its First Look at Governor Cuomo’s 2021-22 Executive Budget with our assessment of how it advances policies that improve the health and well-being of all New Yorkers, especially low-income children and families.
by Helen Smith | May 20, 2020 | COVID-19
As New York slowly reopens, New York lawmakers—federal, state, and local—must stand firmly with our children and families, particularly families of color, and consider implementing the policies we recommend in our Building Back Better: Policy Priorities for New York’s Recovery. These recommendations are intended to meet the immediate, emergency needs of New York children and families, and to take advantage of the critical opportunity presented by the recovery to rebuild New York’s systems to be stronger and more fair than before the pandemic.
While all New Yorkers have faced challenges associated with the pandemic, the challenges are not borne equally. Those already facing poverty, disability, ill-health, and racial discrimination are far more likely to contract COVID-19, and fall severely ill, or even die. Those same New Yorkers are more sharply impacted by school closures, layoffs, supply shortages, social distancing, and other measures being implemented to address the COVID-19 pandemic—due to longstanding structural inequities. New York families with young children are also among those being hit hard by the impacts of the pandemic, particularly the economic fallout.
There is much work to be done to ensure the well-being of New York families and children facing the many challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis. We look forward to continuing to work with our many partners inside and outside government to meet these challenges, and to build a stronger, more equitable New York.[/vc_column_text]
by Helen Smith | Apr 20, 2020 | Legislative
On April 1, 2020, the New York State Legislature and Governor reached agreement on the 2020-21 State Budget. Schuyler Center’s Last Look is our assessment of the enacted State Budget as it compares to priorities that improve the health and well-being of all New Yorkers, especially children and families living in poverty. With New Yorkers still facing grave challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those who are low-income, of color, elderly, or disabled, we will be paying close attention in the coming weeks and months when the budget may be reopened and cuts imposed.[/vc_column_text]
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