More than 500 applicants were not placed during last year’s after-school lottery in Cambridge. Yet the City Council is on the verge of finalizing a set of goals for the term that does not include achieving universal after-school care. It isn’t too late for our councillors to change course and decide that expanding child care should be included in the final set of priorities.
After-school should not be an afterthought! A lack of access to quality child care worsens the vast inequities that exist across every subject and grade level. According to the city’s own data, 62 of the applicants who were turned away in last year’s lottery made less than 65 percent of area median income (about $85,000 for a family of four). There is a glaring lack of capacity in specific programs that attract high demand from lower-income families, such as the after school child care at Fletcher Maynard Academy. How could addressing these disparities not be a top priority?
Discussions about how to tackle these problems are complex, but the small step of including this topic in the council goals sure feels like a no-brainer. Some councillors reasoned at the initial meeting that of course they could still work on this issue even if it isn’t explicitly listed as a goal, but I didn’t find that comforting. Will something really be prioritized if it doesn’t emerge from this very serious goal-setting process that the council has chosen to invest so many hours into?
It is also worth mentioning that just two days after the initial goal-setting session back in February, a proposal surfaced to change the council rules so that councillors would only be able to submit policy orders directly related to the officially determined City Council priorities. Though that concept has yet to be formally voted on, its mere existence substantially raises the stakes of the priority-setting process. This council also controversially voted 5-4 to wipe away last term’s landmark policy order that called for a three-year plan to achieve universal after-school. Thus, multiple signals have been sent to the manager that this isn’t truly a priority regardless of what our councillors might have said last year on the campaign trail.
Taking this small and symbolic step would build confidence that the council is serious about addressing the high cost of living for families by expanding child care, and that they actually want to figure it out this term. The needs of our scholars and their caregivers should be able to crack the council’s to-do list. I hope they will change their minds.
Dan Totten is a resident of Bishop Allen Drive, Cambridge.
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Thank you Dan. This was raised in campaign promises but seems to have been deprioritized.
With all the Greer and CPS drama it also really ought to be the council that steps up!
Some councilors would rather focus on blocking bike lanes than feeding hungry children. This is what an adult in the room actually looks like.
The CC met today to set our goals. Although we didn’t list after school specifically (we would have 100 goals if we listed everything we wanted to do), we did include the following: “The City of Cambridge continues to be committed to other key areas – including but not limited to basic municipal services, infrastructure, public safety and development of public spaces, childcare/after school care, childhood education, and mental health and substance use disorders.”
We tried to keep our goals: Housing and Zoning, Economic Opportunity and Equity Transportation, Sustainability and climate resilience and Government and council performance at a high level with lots of more specific ideas that can fall under those main headings. For example, we don’t list “homelessness” specifically, but that will fall under Housing and Zoning
Last term I sponsored a policy order directing the Human Services Department to formulate a plan to move us to universal afterschool within three years. Councillor Wilson and I, as co-chairs of the Human Services and Veteran’s Committee have scheduled a public meeting on May 1st from 3-5 pm to discuss progress toward universal after school.
I assure you, we have not forgotten about this nor lost interest in making this happen. If I could waive a wand and make it happen tomorrow, I would, but it will take some time. I look forward to the discussion. Public comment will be taken at the meeting, so please feel free to participate.
The after-school programs in Cambridge are one of the best things this City does. My family has been involved in them for more than a decade, and I cannot say enough good things about the staff and how they welcome so many children. For one of my kids, it was often the best part of the day. Such a warm and welcoming space. Please make this available to every child in Cambridge.