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Criticism of DOE's outreach efforts and budget cuts for early childhood education
2:02:06
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Council Member Restler criticizes the DOE's outreach efforts and recent budget cuts to early childhood education programs.
- Restler argues that the low fill rates for extended day/year seats indicate a failure in outreach efforts
- He points out that there has been no improvement in reaching families who need these seats over the past four years
- Restler expresses frustration with the $5 million cut to outreach from the early childhood education budget
- He emphasizes the critical demand for full-day, year-round seats for working families
- The council member calls for more effective strategies to reach and serve families in need of early childhood education services
Lincoln Restler
2:02:06
commitments that gentrify and that it's harder to reach families at certain levels in certain neighborhoods.
2:02:10
I represent one of those districts.
2:02:12
I get it.
2:02:13
But at the same time, when you're filling 50% of the seats system wide, we are failing at outreach.
2:02:19
We are failing to reach the families who desperately need these seats.
2:02:21
And the trouble that I've seen over these now year four of the Adams administration is there's been no improvement.
2:02:27
It's been a failure from the beginning and it's a failure today.
2:02:29
So that's the thing that I'm struggling with.
2:02:31
And then we cut $5,000,000 in outreach from the early childhood education budget.
2:02:35
We know there is a critical demand for these seats.
2:02:37
Families desperately need full day year round seats to be able to take to be able to work.
2:02:41
You can't work a working family can't go to work if they don't have a place to take their kids.
2:02:46
So I do want to follow-up on council member Brewer and council member Joseph's questions.
2:02:49
We also haven't so in the notes that you shared with us, you shared that there are 38 programs for early childhood programs that have been moved to the inactive status since FY '23.
2:02:59
But that doesn't include the site in Councilmember Brewer's district on the Upper West Side or the site in Councilmember Joseph's district in Flatbush or 274 Atlantic Avenue.
2:03:08
These are mothballed early childhood education sites.
2:03:11
How many of those sites exist?
2:03:12
And District 15 has a seat demand.
2:03:14
Can we get a timeline for when this site is going to open?