Mayor's Budget Cutbacks May Threaten City Programs for Children It has become an annual New York drama: cutbacks in the mayor's proposed budget loom, with threats of firehouses being shut down, arts programs slashed and senior centers closed, only to be followed by restorations in the City Council. Yet the drama does not have a happy ending for everyone, and some of the cutbacks are eventually enacted. This year, many families are concerned that cuts to child care and after-school programs could result in 47,000 children losing access to those services, advocates for the programs said on Sunday. Previous rounds of budget reductions have already eroded these programs, the advocates said. The number of children from low-income working families who attend city-subsidized child care has dropped by more than 9,000 since 2009, from 51,712 to 42,215. And the number of children attending after-school programs under the Department of Youth and Community Development's Out-of-School Time program has declined even more sharply, from 85,513 in 2009 to 52,000 in 2012 - a drop of almost 40 percent. Stephanie Gendell, the associate executive director for policy and public affairs for the Citizens" Committee for Children of New York, said it was puzzling that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was cutting funds for child care and after-school programs when he had staked so much of his legacy on education and had described those very programs as critical to children's academic success. "It doesn't match anything he's said about the importance of education, the importance of closing the achievement gap, the importance of his Young Men's Initiative, which is focused on closing the achievement gap and making kids college-ready," Ms. Gendell said. Now he's cutting the same programs that do just that. A spokeswoman for Mr. Bloomberg insisted that the administration was trying to improve child care in harsh fiscal times. Indeed, the city is in the process of putting into effect a new model for early childhood education, called Early Learn NYC, which is intended to improve the quality of subsidized child care. Yet because of diminished financing, and because the new model would provide more money per child, there will be openings for 8,200 fewer children next year. Centers that have contracts with the city have had to reapply, and many worry that they will be dropped. They then would have to get by on private donations, charge more, or close. One of the programs in this limbo is the Cypress Hills Child Care Center in Brooklyn, where Ruth Fernandez, a 42-year-old single mother of four children, sends her 4-year-old daughter, Amira, for $142 a week. Ms. Fernandez said that in the year that she had attended the program, Amira had become much more sociable and had learned basic skills: "She knows how to write her name and last name, she knows how to count to 20, and she knows the colors." Ms. Fernandez said her older daughter, now 16, did not go to a similar program and struggled in kindergarten - something she hopes that Amira can avoid. If the Cypress Hills center has to close, Ms. Fernandez, who is a driving instructor, said she could take Amira to less formal day care in someone's home. But she worried that it would not be monitored by the city and would not benefit her daughter educationally. "They're probably just watching TV," she said. The roughly 420 after-school programs currently under the umbrella of the Out-of-School Time program also face the budget ax. Due to the net loss of $18 million - the combination of cuts in next year's budget and money that the City Council restored this year - the city will award new contracts to only 220 programs. Jacqueline Bailey, 50, a single mother who lives in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, is worried about what will happen if the after-school program that her daughter attends at a public elementary school in Park Slope has to close. She said her daughter, Heaven, who is 9, would have to take the subway home by herself - a 45-minute ride, with a transfer. "She would have to become a latchkey kid, and I don't think nowadays being a latchkey kid is safe," said Ms. Bailey, who does technology work through a temporary agency. I wouldn't be able to focus or concentrate on my job. The 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.