麻豆精品

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

More than childcare providers across every county of New York were  of the  of federal dollars that President Joe Biden鈥檚  injected into the industry. Childcare providers reported using the money to cover rent or pay worker wages, sustaining care for about 676,000 kids in the state.

鈥淭hat helped us keep the doors open,鈥� said Victor Vargas, a former teacher who operates a daycare out of his home in the South Bronx. His daycare, which has eight staff, benefitted from stabilization grants from the federal government as well as a workforce retention grant that the state set up using federal funds.

But the federal money ran out last September, leaving providers struggling with increasingly thin margins between their expenses and what parents can afford or state childcare subsidies will cover. Over the past year, 44 percent of New York childcare providers have raised tuition, and a third have lost staff, according to a new  from The Century Foundation, a liberal think tank, based on surveys and federal data.

New York has increased its own investment in the childcare sector in recent years, largely in the form of  to parents and tax credits to providers, but lawmakers and advocates have called for more funding 鈥� especially to increase the wages of the industry鈥檚 poorly paid workforce. 

This year, New York childcare workers are seeing a pay cut after the state budget delivered a lower wage boost to the industry than last year.

鈥淭he sector is completely flailing right now,鈥� said state Senator Jabari Brisport, who chairs the chamber鈥檚 Committee on Children and Families and  that the state fund universal childcare.

Twelve percent of New York childcare workers live below the federal poverty level, compared to 5 percent of all workers in the state. The industry鈥檚 median wage is , making for some of the lowest paid workers in the state.

鈥淵ou expect us to be able to hire staff, keep them here, and have them want to be here 鈥� because they鈥檙e getting what exactly as a reward? It鈥檚 not money,鈥� said Vargas, 鈥渂ecause we can鈥檛 compete with anyone else. It鈥檚 hard for us to be able to stay in the market.鈥�

The industry was already shedding workers when the federal funding cliff hit. According to The Century Foundation鈥檚 analysis of federal , employment in New York鈥檚 childcare industry fell by 32 percent between 2019 and 2023. (That data excludes preschool teachers and teaching assistants.)

鈥淚n other sectors, like retail and food services, wages have gone up,鈥� said Julie Kashen, the director for women鈥檚 economic justice at The Century Foundation and the report鈥檚 lead author. 鈥淓ven if they train, and love working with children, people can make more money selling coffee, so they are leaving the childcare sector to do that. That means that eventually programs are going to shut down.鈥�

The Century Foundation had previously warned that the September 2023 funding cutoff could lead 70,000 programs to close across the country. Some congressional Democrats and the White House pushed for a  of childcare funding to stave off the crisis, but it did not garner the votes to pass.

One year after the cutoff, the most scenarios haven鈥檛 yet come to pass, the think tank acknowledged in the report published Wednesday. But states are seeing a 鈥渄ownward spiral,鈥� with providers raising prices in order to stay open and struggling to find or retain workers.

Governor Kathy Hochul, who dubs herself the state鈥檚 鈥渇irst mom governor,鈥� has called affordable childcare a key priority. In 2022, she  the state to spend $7 billion on childcare over the four years of her term.

鈥淎s a mother forced to leave her job because of the lack of accessible childcare, I am proud of the work we have done with Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie to make this historic investment and the opportunities it will provide for working parents,鈥� Hochul said at the time.

That pledge was 鈥渟ignificant and welcome,鈥� said Dede Hill, the director of policy for the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy. Thanks to recent expansions of the program, more than half of children in New York are now eligible for the childcare subsidies 鈥� though  actually receive them.

鈥淯nfortunately, there is a real danger that the state鈥檚 failure to invest in the workforce is going to threaten the success of all of these other historic investments on the side of childcare assistance,鈥� said Hill. 鈥淵ou can expand eligibility for tens of thousands of families, as the state has done, but that means nothing to a family if they can鈥檛 find a spot for their child in a program because there are not enough workers.鈥�

Statewide, the number of slots that childcare providers are approved to offer is  as it was in 2021. Some parts of the state, especially poorer and rural areas, have lost capacity, while others have seen an increase. But many providers are operating below their capacity. In a March 2023 , 1,600 providers reported that they had nearly 30,000 licensed slots they couldn鈥檛 fill due to staffing shortages.

In 2023, Hochul and the state legislature agreed to spend $500 million in discretionary federal pandemic relief funds to provide  of up to $3,000 to 110,000 child care workers across the state. This spring, Hochul and lawmakers allocated the unspent remaining portion of those funds for a smaller bonus.

According to the governor鈥檚 office, more than 80,000 childcare workers received a combined bonus of more than $5,000 over the past two years. 鈥淲e鈥檙e committed to strengthening child care programs, growing the workforce and continuing to expand access affordable child care for New Yorkers,鈥� the office said in a statement.

Advocates had called on the state to invest its own money in the workforce and set up a $2 billion 鈥淐hild Care Compensation Fund鈥� in this year鈥檚 state budget.

The proposal was modeled after a similar program in Washington, dc, that provided $12,000 supplements to childcare worker salaries. A Cornell University  found that it would cost nearly $800 million to bring childcare workers to a minimum wage of $23.55 an hour 鈥� the median entry-level wage for preschool and kindergarten teachers in New York.

Both the Senate and the Assembly budget proposals included a smaller version of the fund in the budget, but Hochul rejected it outright.

鈥淪he was completely unwilling to commit new state dollars to fund this proposal. She was solely focused on finding ways to recycle the federal money and leave it at that,鈥� said Brisport.

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 麻豆精品鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.