Stamo Karalazuridis testifies on contracting and payment reform

Good afternoon, Chairperson Gutierrez and members of the Early Childhood Subcommittee.

I'm Stamo Karalazuridis, first vice president of CSA.

Thank you to the council for holding this meeting and thank you to Mayor Mamdani and Chancellor Samuels for recognizing the financial pressure facing early childhood centers and taking action.

The investment in additional staffing, faster contracting, and emergency bridge loans represents meaningful support.

We look forward to working together with all the stakeholders to ensure providers receive the funds they need.

These problems predate this administration, but as we expand early childhood education, we must change the conditions that keep producing these problems.

As CSAs testified in March, every new classroom adds contracting, budgeting, and payment responsibilities.

The city must ensure its administrative capacity grows alongside the programs it promises families.

Providers need contracts completed before services begin.

Timely advanced payments, clear reimbursement schedules, and reliable contact who can resolve problems before payroll is threatened.

Emergency loans can help centers through a crisis.

However, our goal as a system must be one that centers no longer in the need of emergency financing to perform work the city has already agreed to fund.

We also need contracts that reflect the actual cost of operating these programs, which include annual cost adjustments and project centers from destabilizing revenue losses when enrollment fluctuates modestly.

Rent and staffing obligations do not disappear because a few seats are temporarily unfilled.

Finally, reliable funding must support a stable workforce.

Director and assistant director pay parity remains essential.

These leaders supervise instruction, mentor educators, manage compliance, and keep programs functioning through constant change.

Expansion depends on retaining their experience.

Again, we commend the administration's recent action.

Let's build on it so that timely payments, sustainable funding, and supported leadership become the foundation of the universal child care system in New York City.

Thank you.