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Child-care services provided by the city of Los Angeles will be scaled back dramatically by this summer as the city rushes to patch a $212-million shortfall. The move is one of the harsh realities facing city officials as they move toward eliminating as many as 4,000 city jobs to deal with a budget deficit that could grow to $1 billion within the next few years.<\/p>\n
About 900 children are enrolled in the city\u2019s 26 licensed child-care centers. While those programs cost the city more than $7 million annually, the city collects just $2 million, in part because\u00a0officials charge an average of $250 per month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are subsidizing excessively our program and we can\u2019t afford to do that,\u201d City Councilman Greig Smith said during a budget debate at City Hall on Tuesday. \u201c\u2026 I don\u2019t think we have a system that we\u2019ve really proven is very effective. Some things government does well, some they don\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n
Council President Eric Garcetti noted that the city\u2019s services cover a fraction of the families in Los Angeles. \u201cWe took a lucky 1% or 2% of people who need child care and said \u2018You\u2019ve just won the lottery,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWell in bad times, maybe that\u2019s not the best approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recreation and Parks officials plan to shift their licensed child-care centers to facilities that are open for 15 hours a week instead of 40. Instead of offering full-time preschool and day care, officials said many operations would instead offer after-school and sports programs, in some cases partnering with adjacent recreation centers that offer those kinds of programs.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
The change will allow the parks department to meet the target set by city budget officials for eliminating 125 jobs as part of the city\u2019s first 1,000 job cuts. Because some of the child-care positions are part time, about 132 city workers will be affected, parks officials said. <\/p>\n
The preschools at\u00a0Jim Gilliam Recreation Complex and at the Expo Center will continue to operate because they are funded through grants. Garcetti and Smith said the city should look for organizations willing to operate the city\u2019s 24 other child-care centers.<\/p>\n
— Maeve Reston at Los Angeles City Hall <\/p>\n
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