Excerpt from Yiddish article in Der Yid’s Friday, June
21, 2019 edition
United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn lauds Mayor de Blasio for keeping his
longstanding promise to restore the number of vouchers to the 2014 levels.
Thanks are extended to NYC Council Speaker Johnson for securing the funds and to Councilman
Stephen Levin for his ongoing fight to increase the number of vouchers to
families who depend on it. Thanks as well to Councilman Chaim Deutsch for his leadership and
support for the program and to Councilman Kalman Yeger for participating at the
meeting calling for additional vouchers.
Brooklyn, NY – On Friday, June 14, an initial agreement
under the new City budget was reached for the fiscal year 2020 that starts this
upcoming July. The newly released budget held some very good news for parents
who are dependent on childcare to be able to join the workforce. It will
provide an additional $19.7 million to the Special Child Care Fund also known
as the SCCF vouchers that will, with Hashem’s help, be able to provide another
2,600 vouchers for children on the childcare waiting list.
“We are very thankful,” said Rabbi David Niederman, UJO
Executive Director and President, “to Councilman Levin for his devoted fight
towards needy families in the community. During the course of the year,
Councilman Levin has delivered tens of millions of dollars in after-school
childcare assistance to thousands of families and has continued to fight for
this important mission. The Mayor and his administration have been, thank G-d,
very sympathetic to the request, and we are optimistic that this will be successful.
We want to express a hearty thanks to our dear friend, Chaim Deutsch, Chair of
the Jewish Caucus for working tirelessly to bring this assistance to the
community and for being someone always ready to help with any issue that
impacts the community. Thanks as well to all the Council members who signed the
letter calling for assistance to needy families. We also thank Councilman Yeger
for participating in the meeting at City Hall regarding the vouchers that will
be utilized by thousands of families in the community. I also wish to extend a
special thanks to Mr. Lincoln Restler for his assistance with this issue.”
The associated graph in the Der Yid article illustrates the
drastic decline in the number of available vouchers after Mayor Bloomberg
canceled the program in 2013. It also displays how
the number of new SCCF vouchers will be returned to the levels of 2014 after
Mayor de Blasio’s new budget increase for FY2020.
