Is This Enough of a Splash?

On March 25, the Adams administration announced a $5.5 million investment to go towards expanding free swim lessons, with a primary focus on underserved NYC communities.

Two years ago, in September 2023 Council Member Julie Menin sponsored a similar bill mandating the NYC Parks Department to provide free swim lessons for all 70,000 second graders enrolled in public schools. However, the bill’s potential was short-lived, as the Adams administration cut funding that November as it tried to close a looming budget gap triggered by the migrant crisis. Among the many cuts, the $5.2 million that the city council had approved to fund the swimming lessons in the bill that Menin had co-sponsored.

Last year, as the budget crisis, funding for many programs was restored, but not for the swim program that Menin’s bill created.

It was a tough blow because the ongoing life guard shortage at the city’s ocean beaches and pools, meant that only the Hamilton Fish pool on the Lower East Side was able to offer free swimming programs for youths. In the pre-COVID era, youth swimming lessons were offered at most Parks Dept. pools.

Menin was able to partially save her project through a semi-private partnership between the City Council, Asphalt Green and the Gray Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to expand education and opportunity into NYC low-income communities. The partnership became the Wave Makers program, an initiative with a $1.5 million budget to use towards free swim lessons. Menin told Straus News that they have already provided more than 3,000 second graders with lessons, and with another million dollar investment headed their way, that number will continue to increase.

Now, the administration has brought back funding for a similar purpose, but has tailored the investment towards underserved communities, as opposed to Menin’s mandate for all 70,000 second graders in the public school system. Menin, who has been working towards swim safety for quite some time, agrees that there is a higher need for instruction for underserved children.

“Any investment in increased swim lessons to underserved communities is a positive step and incredibly important to address this safety issue,” she said. “We’re close to over 25 percent of children in New York City who are second grade level who do not know how to swim, and the numbers are even higher in communities of color, so we need to ensure that every second grader knows how to swim. Is a public safety issue.”

While she agrees that the expansion is necessary and that underserved communities are in most need for swim safety lessons, Menin suggests that there are still more second graders who won’t be accounted for.

“It will now reach more children, which is obviously very positive. But this still doesn’t get us to the point of reaching all children in need who don’t know how to swim.”

Part of Wave Maker’s project was to map out all the pools throughout New York City that could be used for these swim lessons, since many communities lack access to a public pool. They ended up identifying more than 900 potential pools, which she hopes the Parks Department considers as they move into the $5.5 million investment.

“We wanted to be able to show to the Parks Department that we should be utilizing outside the box thinking to utilize other non-semi pools to provide the free school lessons,” said Menin.

The administration’s investment is said to reach another 4,800 second graders, bringing the total number of students provided with free swim lessons to 18,000. The administration also prides on saving working-class families $1.3 million in swim lessons. While it remains that the investment differs from Menin’s bill in that it doesn’t account for all second graders, the council member is in agreement that this expansion is urgent.