New York City kids face losing after-school programs, thanks to Michael Bloomberg

(Andrew Burton/Reuters) Here's perfect example #349,973 of the ways service cuts that are minuscule in the context of government budgets can harm thousands of lives in ways that ultimately hurt government budgets. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed cutting $19 million from the city's after-school programs, a move that would leave 26,000 children without a place to go from 3 to 6 PM and their parents forced to decide between taking care of their kids and keeping their jobs.

Some of the programs slated for elimination, the New York Times' invaluable Michael Winerip reports, are absolute models. One, considered one of the three best after-school programs in the city, "is considered so good that city officials take visitors there to see how after-school services are supposed to work." The middle school chess team at another recently won the national high school chess championship. Not only will tens of thousands of kids lose out on programs like these'and in addition to the kids slated for cutting now, Bloomberg has already cut tens of thousands of slots out of the programs since 2009'their loss of a safe place to go after school will cause a ripple effect:

For Eridania Santos, a single parent of two, the program at P.S. 24 is the difference between being a $22,000-a-year legal assistant or a welfare mother. She particularly appreciates the daily homework help and the 20 minutes of independent reading. 'It means when I get home from work, it's not just, 'Eat, do your homework, go to bed,' ' she said. 'I can have time with my kids.'

While it's unlikely that billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg gives one shred of a damn about whether Eridania Santos gets time with her kids, you'd think he'd see the advantage to having her at work while her kids are not just kept safe but helped to succeed in school. That's not just a moral, doing the right thing, kind of advantage (though it certainly is that). It's a budget advantage to the city and state of New York. Which is also apparently something Bloomberg is not overly concerned about.