The time between the end of the school day and the traditional end of the workday can be a logistical nightmare for working parents in cities like New York.
One candidate in the mayor’s race has a far-reaching plan to help ease the high-stakes scramble to secure child care or paid activities to keep students busy after classes end: a universal after-school program.
Zellnor Myrie, a Democratic state senator from Brooklyn, on Thursday is expected to propose offering an after-school seat to every public school student who wants one. The sweeping program would be free and cover all children — from 3-year-olds in preschool to high school seniors — and would run until 6 p.m. on weekdays.
Mr. Myrie’s plan would also guarantee spots in the city’s no-cost summer academic and enrichment youth program. Tens of thousands of children typically languish on wait-lists or are denied seats every year.
The proposals would represent a huge undertaking in the nation’s largest school district, where most preschool classes run only until the school day ends, and where hundreds of public schools lack free, city-funded services after dismissal. Mr. Myrie did not offer a detailed funding plan but said he would pull from several sources, including savings from reduced local spending on migrants and revenue collected from audits of unpaid taxes owed to the city.
More than 20 million U.S. children are unable to sign up for an after-school program, despite interest from their families, national surveys show. Many parents struggle to find open seats, while others simply cannot afford to spend several hundred dollars a month on programs. Lower-income families often have the toughest time finding high-quality options.
Mr. Myrie said he expects that more than 180,000 students who are not signed up for after-school programs would take advantage of what he is calling the “After-school for All” initiative.
“This, to me, is such a common sense solution,” Mr. Myrie said in an interview. He has pushed for years to expand after-school programming and spoken about its value in his childhood.
He called his plan “the biggest and the boldest solution to help our families stay in the city and to help them thrive.”
The proposal is one of the most far-reaching from a mayoral candidate to make New York more livable for families. The city is facing an affordability crisis that has left about half of households struggling to pay for basic necessities such as food and health care.
Parents of young children can spend more than $30,000 each year on child care — and are more likely to move out of the city altogether because of the cost.
Families across the economic spectrum, from the city’s poorest residents to upper-middle-class families, deal with the burden of child-care costs, an experience that is so prevalent that nearly all of the nine Democrats running for mayor have been compelled to make affordability a central theme of their campaigns.
Mayor Eric Adams, who is seeking a second term, has promoted his efforts to lower the cost of child care for low-income families even as his administration has endured frequent criticism for its management of preschool programs. The creation of the city’s universal prekindergarten initiative is regarded as the signature policy achievement of his predecessor, Bill de Blasio.
Several mayoral candidates are seeking to expand Mr. de Blasio’s initiatives.
Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who announced his bid for mayor last week, said he would expand the city’s popular 3-K program to guarantee all children a seat near their homes, as parents complain that some neighborhoods lack enough spots to meet demand.
Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller, proposed creating a new city fund that would ensure no family pays more than 7 percent of household income on child care. Brad Lander, the city comptroller, has said he would “work toward universally available” after-school programs in elementary and middle grades, while restoring preschool funding that Mayor Adams cut.
And Zohran Mamdani, a state lawmaker from Queens, has pledged to implement free child care for all children from 6 weeks to 5 years old.
But Mr. Myrie is the first candidate to propose a free, citywide after-school program for all public school students. He said he would aim to offer universal care for 3- and 4-year-old preschoolers in his first year, and then expand the program.
Research shows that after-school programs, especially high-quality ones, can improve a child’s attendance, academics and other measures of well-being, including mental health. The initiatives can also help keep young people out of trouble: A significant proportion of juvenile crime occurs in the hours around dismissal, studies have shown.
Still, large-scale public investment in after-school care is rare. California has directed several billion dollars toward a universal after-school plan and spends more on the programs than all other states combined.
New York City Council members have introduced unsuccessful legislation for universal after-school initiatives several times during the past decade.
Concerns about costs often presented a major barrier. The de Blasio administration, which significantly expanded after-school seats in middle school, often warned that the potential price tag of hundreds of millions of dollars a year would be unfeasible.
Mr. Myrie contends that there is a steep economic cost when parents are forced to cut work hours because of child-care gaps. “Every dollar that we invest here will come back to the city many times over,” he said.
His plan would require a significant hiring wave, a potential challenge. It has been tough for after-school operators across the nation — especially since the coronavirus pandemic — to recruit and retain staff members for positions that often come with limited hours and benefits.
Mr. Myrie said he would work with colleges to create paths for after-school staff members to become classroom teachers to make the job more attractive. He pledged that if he is elected, his administration would train participants in the city’s summer youth employment program as staff members.
The employment program serves about 100,000 young people, and Mr. Myrie said he would expand it by 50,000 slots.
Edie Sharp, a former top official in the city’s Education Department under chancellor Richard A. Carranza, said her son is enrolled in 3-K without after-school care. Ms. Sharp said she often scrambles to figure out care for him between 2:45 and 6 p.m., when she leaves work.
Ms. Sharp said that as districts struggle with chronic absenteeism, after-school programs could both ease the burden on parents and help bring children “back into our public schools at a time that feels urgent.”
“It’s absolutely a necessity for working families,” she said.
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