[ TEACHER STRIKE ]
Child-care providers that expected an upswing in business as a result of the strike by the state's 13,000 public school teachers have discovered just the opposite, as many have been forced to lay off scores of employees while keeping a close eye on their bottom line. Strike pinches after-
school care programsBy B.J. Reyes
Star-BulletinAs the largest private provider of after-school care through the state's A+ program, the YMCA of Honolulu has an organizational structure of program leaders, coordinators, secretaries and other staff that can accommodate more than 6,000 students.
But these days, the organization needs only a few dozen employees.
YMCA of Honolulu President Don Anderson said after-school staff is down to about 50 or 60 from 300, and the organization is not supervising any children after school. Instead, only about 600 children are being cared for by the YMCA through its strike day-care programs.
That probably will not be enough to offset the losses that will be incurred if the strike lasts much longer.
"This is a financial negative," Anderson said.
Organizational expenses "are there whether there's nobody in the program or there's a zillion people in the program," he added. "You have your overhead whether anyone's there or not, and you're dealing with highly reduced numbers. We'll take a hit."
The strike that began April 5 has idled about 183,000 public school students. Last school year, the A+ program, formally known as the After-School Plus Program, oversaw an average of 22,757 students per month, a figure that has not varied much this year, said Joanne Swearingen, an educational specialist for the state Department of Education who oversees the program.
However, "as long as the schools remain closed, then the A+ program is closed," she said.
The program was initiated in 1990 by then-Lt. Gov. Ben Cayetano and billed as the nation's first statewide after-school care program for kindergarten through sixth grade. It aims to provide affordable child care for working parents.
Of the 177 sites statewide that provide after-school care through the A+ program, 104 are run by the DOE; the rest are contracted out to private providers. Forty-six A+ programs are run by the YMCA, 21 by Kamaaina Kids, five by Youth and Community Services Co. and one by Moiliili Community Center.
Like the YMCA, Kamaaina Kids has had to lay off A+ program workers. After-school care usually consists of about 175 workers looking after 3,200 kids statewide, Kamaaina Kids President Ray Sanborn said. Those numbers have been trimmed to about 35 workers and 500 kids during the strike.
"We've got a lot of unemployed staff," Sanborn said.
At DOE care sites, many of the after-school care workers are faculty, but many workers also are college students working toward a degree in education, Swearingen said.
"Some really do rely on the job as their primary source of income, creating a strong impact on their finances," said Elton Lau of Youth and Community Services.
If the strike continues, A+ program providers may have to refund payments to parents who paid for after-school care for April. Formal discussions about when a decision might be made on the matter or how much money might be refunded have not yet taken place, officials said.
Whatever action the private providers take would be predicated on what measures are taken by the DOE.
The cost for placing a child in after-school care varies depending on how many children a parent has enrolled and whether a child is attending school on reduced- or free-lunch status.
The majority of students enrolled in the program, about 62 percent, are not in reduced- or free-lunch programs. Parents of those children pay a monthly rate of $55 per child.
The rate drops to $50 per child per month if two or more children are enrolled and to $45 per child per month if three or more children are enrolled.
The cost of caring for a child after school is about $70 a day, Swearingen said, and private providers receive a subsidy per child equal to the difference between the monthly fee paid by parents and the $70 figure. But she reiterated that as long as schools are shut down, so is the A+ program.
Even when the strike is over, it will be up to each after-school care site to determine if it is adequately staffed to reopen, further delaying the return of students to the sites.
If refunds are granted, providers like the YMCA and Kamaaina Kids say it will be hard to recoup the financial loss.
For Kamaaina Kids, strike day-care service has not picked up the slack financially.
"I was thinking the longer the strike would go, the higher our enrollment would be, but we actually went down in enrollment today," Sanborn said yesterday.
Said Anderson: "The real tragedy is in what's going on with our children. We can provide recreational programs ... but children need to be in school on school hours receiving an education."
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