NYC NOW - June 13, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

The New Jersey Attorney General's office say one person is dead and two officers are injured after an exchange of gunfire at a banquet hall in police shot and killed a homicide suspect at a banquet hall in Woodbridge Township. In other news, more than half a dozen lawsuits are seeking to halt congestion pricing from going forward. But now, advocates and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander say they may sue to force the state to implement the tolls. Also, New York City's effort to shut down unlicensed cannabis stores is being challenged in a new class-action lawsuit alleging that not enough is being done to protect the businesses' constitutional rights to due process. Plus, child care centers around the city say they are having a hard time hiring and retaining teachers and other staff because they can’t compete with the higher wages offered by the New York City public school system. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with reporter Karen Yi, who has followed the story.

NYC now. Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, June 13th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The New Jersey Attorney General's office says one person is dead and two police officers got hurt in an exchange of gunfire overnight, two officers, including one from the NYPD and one from Woodbridge Township are recovering from gunshot wounds, and the AG says police shot and killed a homicide suspect at a banquet hall. The New Jersey AG's office and New York City and Woodbridge police are all investigating the incident. More than half a dozen lawsuits are seeking to halt congestion pricing from going forward, but now advocates and New York City controller Brett Landers say they may sue to force the state to put it into action. This comes after Governor

Hockel froze the plan to charge drivers below 60th Street of Manhattan. Dana Dennis is a senior organizer with the group Riders Alliance. Dennis says money from congestion pricing would have improved the lives of commuters. We will continue to hold her responsible. We will call it Hockel's MTA. Every time our train is delayed, our bus is slow. We do not have enough elevators at our station. We will continue to call it out.

Before taking legal action, congestion pricing support is away for the MTA board to meet later this month. New York City's effort to shut down unlicensed cannabis stores is being challenged in the new class action lawsuit. The suit comes from more than two dozen stores that were shut down in recent weeks as part of an enforcement blitz called Operation Padlock to protect. Recent changes in New York state law allow the city to padlock stores on the spot without first getting a court order. 80 right now and mostly sunny. Is sunny in mid-80s today, mostly clear in 70, then tomorrow, mostly sunny, mid to upper 80s chances of showers and thunderstorms with potentially damaging winds.

Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNMIC, I'm Sean Carlson. Childcare centers around the city say that they're having a hard time hiring and retaining teachers and other staff. They say it's because they can't compete against the New York City public school system that offers higher wages. WNYC's Karen Ye joined us now to talk about what it means for the future of the city. child care system. Karen, what is it about the ecosystem of child care in the city that contributes to

such a pay gap between teachers? Okay, so you sort of have these parallel tracks. You have the city's department of education, which runs free preschool programming for three and four-year-olds. That's what we know is 3K and pre-K. And the workers who staff these programs are represented by the powerful teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers or UFT. But the DOE also funds and contracts with community providers. These are nonprofits who typically offer subsidized programs. for infants to five-year-olds. And these teachers who are doing the same job make a lot less money. They're represented by another union, DC-37, and the city, which is the funder, is currently

in contract talks with the union and providers. I spoke to Nora Moran, who is a director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, which has called for the city to agree to better pay workers. If this is work that we say we value, if this is work that, our government pays well in one part of the system, why isn't it paying the same thing in another part? She says ensuring there's parity and pay between the DOE system and this nonprofit system is very important. There's an ongoing staffing crisis in the child care sector. And as we know, most families in New York just can't afford the cost of child care.

Yeah. Well, what does it mean for families? Well, community-based programs really are the ones that working class and low-income families rely on because they offer longer days for the working parents, more flexible hours and affordable rates because they're publicly subsidized. DOE programs typically run until 2.30, and only some offer extended hours if parents pay for it.

So it's really hard for these nonprofit providers to hold on to their staff. That means child care centers on most mornings are scrambling to open because they need to make sure that they have enough workers to meet state ratios, right? And a lot of them also scramble to hire new teachers. Silvana Vasconcelos is the director of the Early Childhood Center at the organization Wedco.

Last year, she says she lost four out of the six teachers she employed to run the Head Start program. Oh, my God. It was a nightmare. And there is another caveat to it. You cannot open a classroom if you don't have a day teacher. She says most of her teachers are women and also have families. So they're really trying to make tough decisions about what they need to raise their children in the city, where rents and food prices are. are escalating. Can we talk about just how big the disparities are between workers depending on where they were? Yes. So one survey of providers done by United Neighborhood Houses found that a teacher with a bachelor's degree working in the DOE starts off earning almost $65,000 a year. Now, teachers with the same degree in a community program earn an average of $14,000 less than that.

So it's a pretty stark disparity. And the other problem is there's no longevity pay. So teachers who have more experience have been there many years and work at a community center. aren't compensated for it. Gregory Brender is the chief policy and innovation officer for the Daycare Council, which represents providers. In order to make a sustainable career teaching, people who really have expertise in early childhood feel like they have to get out of the system. A report by the Daycare Council last year found that over a 25-year career, a teacher will lose out on more than $700,000 in earning potential if they choose to stay at a community program. What do these differences in pay mean for the child care programs themselves?

Right. So the same report by the daycare council said that nearly half of child care centers say on average, there are teachers leave within five years. So there's not much longevity there. Community providers say they're losing a lot of teachers and support staff, actually, to the DOE where they can make more money, work fewer hours and have summers off. And DOE programs, like I mentioned, at six hour days, right? Nonprofits offer eight to ten hour days in our open year round.

Bridget O'Rourke helps run the child care program. at university settlement. It's not only not equal pay for equal work. It's actually less pay for more work. And so it's a really hard sell. And the equation just doesn't make sense. She says even if they could offer their workers a little bit more pay when they get other jobs, they just can't match the hours and the benefits they get at the DOE and those summers off.

So how does the city and providers begin to resolve these problems? Well, I think what people are focusing on right now is the collective bargaining effort. They think that's crucial to sort of start moving these two parallel tracks closer together. The last contract in 2019 did boost starting wages, but it didn't do much for the experienced teachers who had been there longer or support staff, right? Like custodians or administrative assistance and security guards. And the stakes are higher than ever. You have everything is costing more and child care is forcing families to flee the city. At the same time, there's an ongoing fight between Mayor Adams and the city council.

Adams is proposing making cuts to early childhood education. and that's really upset parents. And even now the unions are also backing efforts to reverse these cuts that he's proposed. It's WNMIC's Karen. Thanks for your reporting. Thanks, Sean. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC.

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