VOA新闻杂志2022 课余计划面临劳动力短缺

After-school Programs Face Labor¹ Shortage²

As students return to classrooms in the United States, many parents are still not able to return to work. They are finding that after-school childcare programs are in short supply.

School-based providers list difficulties in hiring and keeping workers as the biggest reasons they have not fully³ recovered from pandemic shutdowns. Providers say they are as worried about the situation as the parents who are without childcare.

"We're in a constant state of flux⁴. We'll hire one staffer and another will resign. We've just not been able to catch up this year," said Ester Buendia. She is assistant director for after-school programs at Northside Independent School District in Texas.

Before the pandemic, the local after-school program Learning Tree had 1,000 workers. They served more than 7,000 students at about 100 elementary and middle schools. Today, there are fewer than 500 employees serving about 3,300 students. More than 1,100 students are on waiting lists for the program. It provides educational, recreational and social activities every school day, outside of school hours.

Studies suggest parents, mostly mothers, are staying home for their children because they are unable to find after-school programming. That causes worker shortages⁵ at such programs that depend heavily on women to run them.

"There's no doubt really that these after-school programs — the lack of after-school programs — are limiting women in particular being able to reenter the workforce⁶," said Jen Rinehart. She leads planning and programming for the nonprofit group Afterschool Alliance⁷.

"If women don't return to the workforce, then we don't have the staff we need for these after-school opportunities, so it's all very tangled⁸ together," she said.

An Afterschool Alliance study found a record high of 24.6 million children were unable to enter a program at the end of 2021. The researchers looked at more than 1,000 program providers. They found 54 percent had waiting lists, a much larger share than in the past.

Wells Fargo reported that labor shortages in childcare are more severe than in other industries also struggling to find dependable employees. Employment was 12.4 percent below its pre-COVID-19 level at the beginning of March. That leaves an estimated 460,000 families forced to make other plans, the researchers found.

Erica Gonzalez of San Antonio got after-school care for her daughters who are in second and sixth grade. That permitted her to keep her job at a nonprofit and her husband, a teacher, to also coach.

Gonzalez had made sure to register her children for Learning Tree as early as possible. She also kept in contact with the girls' schools through the process.

Gonzalez said, "We were really just kind of hoping and praying" for placement in the program.

The Afterschool Alliance survey found that 71 percent of programs had taken action to hold onto to its workers and appeal to job seekers. The most common measure was to increase wages. In some cases, programs used federal pandemic relief money in the form of childcare awards. Some also have offered free childcare for employees as well as extra money or paid time off.

Rinehart described a "tremendous unmet demand for after-school and summer programs" even before the pandemic. She said the health crisis⁹ has made the problem worse.

Words in This Story

flux – n. change; fluctuation¹⁰

doubt – n. a feeling of being uncertain

particular – adj. relating to one person or thing

opportunities – n. greater chances for success

tangled – adj. very involved; exceedingly complex

coach – v. to teach and train

tremendous – adj. astonishingly large, strong, or great

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 flux   

n.流动；不断的改变

参考例句：

• The market is in a constant state of flux.市场行情在不断变化。
• In most reactors,there is a significant flux of fast neutrons.在大部分反应堆中都有一定强度的快中子流。

5 shortages   

n.不足( shortage的名词复数 )；缺少；缺少量；不足额

参考例句：

• Food shortages often occur in time of war. 在战争期间常常发生粮食短缺的情形。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• At the same time, worldwide food and fuel shortages eased. 同时，世界性粮食和石油短缺的现象终止了。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

6 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

7 alliance   

n.同盟，同盟国，结盟，联姻

参考例句：

• China will not enter into alliance with any big power.中国不同任何大国结盟。
• The new alliance was very much in evidence.新的联盟上星期很引人注目。

8 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

9 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

10 fluctuation   

n.(物价的)波动，涨落；周期性变动；脉动

参考例句：

• The erratic fluctuation of market prices are in consequence of unstable economy.经济波动致使市场物价忽起忽落。
• Early and adequate drainage is essential if fluctuation occurs.有波动感时，应及早地充分引流。