Queens lawmaker rallies with advocates in Forest
Hills to urge the state to transform child care
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JUNE 4-JUNE 10, 2021 5
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Assemblyman Andrew
Hevesi along with childcare
providers and advocates rallied
in Forest Hills at MacDonald
Park last month, to celebrate
the game-changing investments
made in early care and
education in the state’s fiscal
year 2021-22 budget.
Hevesi joined providers
from Empire State Campaign
for Child Care and Winning Beginning
NY at MacDonald Park
located at 8720 Queens Blvd.
“This year’s budget victories
provided a one-time opportunity
to save providers impacted
in the pandemic, and lay
the groundwork for systemic
change to make childcare more
accessible for all,” said Hevesi,
chair of the Committee on Children
and Families. “The state
must do the right thing and implement
these funds immediately,
and in full. Our economic
recovery, our providers and our
children are depending on it.”
Through the use of federal
funding from the American
Rescue Plan and previous
rounds of federal stimulus funding,
as well as a tax increase on
the highest income New Yorkers,
the FY 2021-22 budget takes
large steps to expand access to
child care subsidies, decrease
parent costs for childcare,
equalize subsidy eligibility
requirements throughout the
state and expand Universal
Pre-Kindergarten.
Thanks to investments
made in the budget, thousands
of low-income working families
who are desperate for access to
childcare subsidies can come
off of waitlists and enroll their
children in high-quality, affordable
early childhood education
programs, and the cost of
childcare will decline for even
more working families. An expanded
early childhood Quality
Rating Improvement System
(QRIS), Quality Stars NY, will
help more programs improve
and implement best practices.
Plus, childcare providers that
were forced to close doors due
to the economic impacts of the
pandemic, and those still open,
but struggling, will have access
to up-front stabilization
grants. Additionally, Universal
pre-K classrooms will expand
throughout the state.
The budget is a hard-won
victory for New York’s parents
and childcare providers who
made state leaders understand
that recovery cannot happen
without robust, sustained investment
in early childhood
education, including childcare
and after-school programs.
Throughout the pandemic,
hundreds of parents and providers
came together virtually
and in socially distanced inperson
events to speak for the
needs in their communities.
Parents, disproportionately
mothers, had to drop out of the
workforce to care for children
at home due to childcare closures
and the shift to remote
learning. Meanwhile, child
care providers were unable to
keep their doors open due to the
extraordinary new costs and
challenges associated with the
pandemic.
Read more on QNS.com.
Reach reporter Carlotta Mohamed
by e-mail at cmohamed@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 260–4526.
Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi with child care providers and advocates in Forest Hills at MacDonald
Park. Courtesy of Hevesi’s offi ce
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