One of the biggest crises for working families in America is the lack of affordable, quality child care. The choices available are few and often very exclusive (I hear rumors of people having to give stock tips to day care owners to get their kids in) and/or very expensive.

My wife and I were lucky. We got our son into the Berkeley Carroll child care center. Berkeley Carroll child care is far from cheap, but they provide all day care so both my wife and I can work full days, so it is worth it. They offer first come-first serve sign ups for new applicants, so it is as egalitarian as you can get given the price. This means there is a wide variety of children who attend from all over the city. The quality of care is exemplary. Parents are encouraged to be involved and are listened to (message to Bloomberg: successful schools listen to the parents!). Children are happy and learn at an amazing rate. My only complaint is the price but you get what you pay for, so even there it isn't really a complaint.

Next year Jacob will enter public school. We are firm believers in public school education, so we do not plan to continue with Berkeley Carroll after the child center, but we will always be thankful for their years of care before public school is an option.

In the future it seems children will not be as lucky as Jacob. Berkeley Carroll is closing their child care center at the end of this year.

Their child care center originiated as a collaboration with NY Methodist Hospital. This collaboration has slowly been drifting apart over the years, though the hospital still provides the meals for the children even now. It was a good collaboration as far as I can tell, but we all know that NY City hospitals are in trouble. Methodist hospital wants back the building Berkeley Carroll is using for the child care, thus ending the collaboration. This has been brewing for some time and Methodist Hospital has been accomodating in allowing the child care center to continue until they find another place to move to.

But Berkeley Carroll has not been able to find another place. There are two problems: the cost of real estate and the regulations on the operation of a child care center that includes one-year-olds. The combination has prevented Berkeley Carroll from being able to find a place to move their child care center to, leaving them with, they feel, no option but to close the child care center. Of course Berkeley Carroll's primary responsibility is runnning their private school. The child care was a lucky opportunity that resulted in the convergence of the hospital, Berkeley Carroll, and a community need. Now that one part of that convergence is withdrawing, Berkeley Carroll can no longer help with the community need.

And that community need is greater than ever. Brooklyn NEEDS quality childcare. Now the Berkeley Carroll child care center was only a small part of meeting the need, and so much more is needed. But losing one of the best child care centers around, and one that allows two working parents to work full days for most of the year, is a big step in the wrong direction.

Some parents are organizing to try and find a solution so that Berkeley Carroll can continue to provide day care. This movement is in no way critical of Berkeley Carroll, but is simply trying to see if there is some way that the community can help the school find a way to continue. I would like to see more. I would like to see an expansion of their child care to help more parents. Unless the city is going to better step up to the plate and finally provide working parents with public child care options, we are left with places like Berkeley Carroll as our main options for watching and teaching our children while we work. And I do not see people like Bloomberg, Markowitz and the like stepping up to the plate when it comes to this. If you are interested in helping find a solution for Berkeley Carroll keeping its child care open (or, in my view, expanding!) please contact me. My family will not be directly impacted by the closing of Berkeley Carroll child care, but I would like to see many more children have the wonderful experience my son has had.

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