City Council members blasted the Bloomberg administration's plan to alleviate childcare cuts by moving more than 10,000 kids into after-school programs they said were of questionable quality during a budget hearing Tuesday.

The after-school programs are less expensive to run and critics such as Brooklyn councilman Stephen Levin questioned whether they would be able to provide the same level of service as childcare centers.

"How on earth can you say that there can be a similar quality of care with a reduction per child of half? I don't get it," Levin said.

Much of the savings will come from running programs out of public schools and not having to pay facility costs, according to Susan Nuccio, deputy commissioner for Administration for Children's Services, which oversees childcare programs.

ACS commissioner John Mattingly said his agency had cut child care slots because of a structural deficit that stemmed from the state and federal government not keeping up with increases in child care costs. But some council members disagreed.

"The mayor's made a choice to cut 57 to 58 percent of the child care slots for low income working families," said Brooklyn councilman Brad Lander. "It's not a structural deficit, it’s unconscionable."