Governor Cuomo is proposing a minimum 20% cut to state funding for prekindergarten, preschool special education, child care and after-school services this year. These critical services are essential for children, families and the community and key to the successful reopening of public schools and sustaining local economies.
We know that across-the-board cuts will have a disproportionate and devastating impact on Black and Latinx children, children from immigrant families, children who are homeless, and children with developmental delays and disabilities. These cuts would balance the budget at the expense of working families, and the educators and caregivers who work in these programs — mostly Black and Brown women who support our youngest learners each day.
Without access to safe, affordable child care parents cannot work, and businesses cannot re-open and stay open. Further reductions in the state investment could stall, or even derail, the state’s economic recovery.
We must protect the state’s early childhood programs — for prekindergarten, preschool special education, child care and after-school services — from the proposed 20 percent cuts, but we also need New York State to take steps now to secure these programs for the future.