State Senator Zellnor Myrie\u00a0listened\u00a0to Brooklyn parents talk about the high cost of child care on Saturday and emphasized the need for affordable after school help.<\/p>\n
Parents, Myrie\u00a0and\u00a0Rebecca Bailin, the executive director of the nonprofit group\u00a0New Yorkers United for Child Care<\/a>, chatted in the corner of Park Slope Playground in what was dubbed as a “playgrounds and parenting town hall” to talk about\u00a0the high cost of raising a family in the midst of New York City\u2019s ongoing affordability crisis.<\/p>\n As children frolicked and played, parents spilled their\u00a0administrative headaches and anxieties over their inability to afford day\u00a0care or after school help.<\/p>\n “Some of the parents that I’ve spoken to already this morning have communicated to me that they pay materially more than $20,000 a year for childcare, and that’s unacceptable,” Myrie said. “You should not live in a city and a state where you cannot raise your family.\u201d<\/p>\n Bailin said New Yorkers United for Child Care began campaigning in the city and Albany for free universal child care late last year.<\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking about having my own family and realizing that I might have to move, and that felt really unfair,\u201d Bailin said. \u201cI realized I’m not the only one, and so that’s why we’re organizing families.\u201d<\/p>\n Ricki Guberman, a mother to a four-year-old and an eight-month-old, said she worries about figuring out childcare and aftercare for two over the next few years.<\/p>\n New York City has an affordability problem, even for the upper-middle class. A 2023 report by the\u00a0Citizens\u2019 Committee for Children of New York<\/a>\u00a0found that childcare is unaffordable for 80% of city families. Mayor Eric Adams was under fire just this year for roll-backs to the city\u2019s preschool program amid planned budget cuts, the worst of which were avoided in a last-minute deal in June,\u00a0Chalkbeat reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Andrew Bennett is a Park Slope parent with a three-year-old and a one-year-old in childcare, which costs him $5,000 per month. Not only is the cost a personal burden, but their daycare has faced financial difficulties, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cRent is so expensive for the daycares, and then staffing ratios are really high,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cThe providers are not even making a ton of money, and they’re commuting from super far to make it all work. So it’s just a tough situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Myrie, who has served in the state senate since 2019, formed an exploratory committee earlier this year to consider a run for mayor in 2025. He has\u00a0championed a\u00a0universal after-school program<\/a>, a policy he would\u00a0implement\u00a0first\u00a0in the poorest school district in each borough.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up on the other side of the park, and I would not have been able to become a state senator, to become a lawyer, if we didn’t have after school programming,\u201d Myrie said, referring to Prospect Park. \u201cThat provided some relief for my mom, because like most New Yorkers, she didn\u2019t come home at 3:00pm. But there’s a first part of that \u2013 that\u2019s our early childhood care.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"img_4355\"](\"https:\/\/www.vmcdn.ca\/f\/files\/bkreader\/images\/news\/img_4355.JPG;w=960\")