NEW YORK—Parents quitting jobs. Latch-key kids. Increased crime. These are some of the more severe potential effects of proposed cuts to after-school programs, according to City Council members and advocates.
Total funds in the proposed fiscal year 2013 budget for youth services have dropped from $329 million to $244.8 million. The biggest cuts would be to Out-of-School Time, or after-school programs. In 2009, $121 million from city, state, and federal sources paid for more than 75,000 slots; proposed funding for the upcoming budget has $73 million funding 27,000 slots.
City funding alone would decrease from $212 million to $150 million if the proposed budget were to pass.
“These cuts are downright foolish, and every penny that we save on after-school programs today is not only a lost educational opportunity, it’s a lost economic opportunity—and it’s probably a cost to the criminal justice system down the road,” said Councilman Lewis A. Fidler, at a Thursday hearing on the issue.
In a report issued on Thursday by advocacy group Campaign For Children, based on a survey filled out by parents, 36 percent of parents (1,274) who responded said they would quit their job to stay home with their child or children if the proposed budget cuts to after-school programs are passed.
Out of the 4,000 responses, another 16 percent (576) would leave their child or children home alone, while 21 percent (749) would leave them with a relative.
