The mayor did have some good news to announce today. He says the city has not only reached, but surpassed its enrollment goal for universal pre-kindergarten this year. NY1′s Lindsey Christ filed this report.
The goal was 53,000 four-year-olds enrolled in full-day, free programs this year—more than double the number last year and a target many experts, pundits and elected officials said was likely too ambitious.
Now, though, more than two months into the school year—the mayor says, he did it.
“53,230 in seats as we speak,” the mayor boasted.
That means the city enrolled 2,200 additional students since the start of the school year, when there was 51,000 pre-kindergartners.
Even at the press conference Wednesday, there were some who admitted they weren’t always sure this would happen.
“We’ve accomplished something that I have to say that—the mayor was very kind—I have to say I was sometimes the skeptic,” said Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan.
Last spring, the city launched a major effort to find and enroll tens of thousands of four-year-olds by this fall, with advertising, phone banks and door-to-door canvassing.
By filling all the seats it had hoped to, the city will now be in a much stronger position when it comes time to fight for more funding to continue and expand the program next year.
The location of this press conference—at The Spruce Street School in Lower Manhattan—was likely not an accident. It’s a school Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver fought to open in his district.
The pre-k program—including its expansion by 20,000 seats next year—is something the mayor can not do without support in Albany.
That means Silver is already the focus of a lot of the mayor’s attention, and praise, related to this topic.
“I can safely say no one deserves more credit than Speaker Shelly Silver. And that is because this was not a new idea to him. Shelly Silver was working on this idea, not for just years—for decades. I could never have been in a position to achieve this full day pre-k program if not for the work he did,” the mayor said.
This year, the city got $ 300 million from Albany to fund the program. Officials say they don’t yet know how much they’ll need next year, when the goal is 73,000 four-year-olds.
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