Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio focused on education Monday during his first major speech since the election.
He delivered the keynote address at the New York City Summit on children which focuses on ensuring the health, education and well-being of the city’s children.
De Blasio sounded some familiar notes from his campaign speeches, saying his big win at the polls proves he has a mandate from the voters to take on issues like education and inequality.
“We can’t ever fundamentally change inequality without addressing education. The good news is we have a moment in which to act. I am convinced we can make a huge impact,” De Blasio said.
To that end, he repeated his promise to fight for free universal pre-K education throughout the city.
He pointed to other countries that already guarantee such education, and noted the huge competition for pre-K seats in the city.
“Some of our pre-Ks have acceptance rates than Ivy League schools: Yale, Columbia and Princeton,” De Blasio noted.
De Blasio will still have to convince Albany to approve a new tax on the rich to pay for universal pre-K. But he also said he was ready to fight for more, noting that he wants free after school programs for all middle schoolers.
He ended by calling educational inequality the “core challenge of our time.”
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via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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