In 2011, New York City faced tremendous budget cuts in school arts programs. Hundreds of art teachers werelaid off and school arts budgets were cut drastically. The director of New York City’s Center of Arts Education was quoted stating “The status of arts education could go from bad to worse…if steps are not taken to protect the arts.”
The most troubling of these statistics, is that some schools, particularly middle schools, have cut out arts from their curriculum all together. Only 59% of schools presorted that all of their graduating students actually fulfilled graduation requirements for the arts. In other words, over 405 of schools are not providing the arts coursework for students necessary to meet state requirements.
Children were forced to rely on organizations, such as All Stars, outside their schools to participate in arts programs. However, even after-school programs are beginning to be threatened.
Since 2009, the number of children from low-income working families who attend city-subsidized child-care has dropped by more than nine thousand because of a lack of programs available.
Furthermore, in 2012, New York City faced severe cutbacks on city funded afterschool programs aiding low-income families. Because of a net loss of eighteen million dollars, the city only awarded contracts to twenty of the four hundred and twenty programs they initially funded. As a result, forty-seven thousand families lost access to much needed services. Many families worry for their children who are no longer benefiting from these services. With a lack of proper child-care available for children of all ages, parents worry that their children will stay home and “just watch TV.”
In response to the outcry over these budget cuts, spokeswoman for the mayor, Samantha Levine, said in an e-mail: “Economic realities have required painful funding decisions, but we are working within our means to provide critical services. For example, Early Learn NYC enables us to realize our vision of preparing children for school success by providing quality classroom experiences and critical family supports, while investing our limited resources in expanding or sustaining capacity in neighborhoods where the largest number of eligible children reside.”
