Mayor Eric Adams, who took office in January, is canceling de Blasio’s plan for universal 3K, citing mismanagement of the program that led to the empty seats and budget cuts.
“The city was leading the way so I think this is a huge setback,” said W. Steven Barnett, a Rutgers University professor who’s authored studies about the effects of preschool programs on achievement levels.Adams has defended his decision to curtail the 3K program by blaming his predecessor for its shortcomings., arguing that de Blasio’s plan for universal early childhood education left out students with disabilities.
The state and federal funds didn’t come through, and the pandemic hobbled the plan. Then, in March 2021, de Blasio caught a break — he announced that he would use federal Covid stimulus funds to create 60,000 3K seats.
When pre-K and 3K finally reopened, residents of Bronx neighborhoods like Highbridge and Morrisania had some of the“I don’t think that [the Adams administration] appreciated the impact that the pandemic had on families’ awareness of early care in the education system and the level of help that they needed in re-engaging with the system and finding their way back to it,” said Josh Wallack, who oversaw the expansion of pre-K under de Blasio.
Wallack, the former de Blasio official who’s now a fellow at Open Society Foundations, said the previous administration tried to determine demand by working with providers to scrutinize enrollment numbers from the previous year and then make adjustments over the spring and summer.“I don’t think that this administration focused on managing the balance between seats and demand from January on and I don’t think that they did significant outreach from January on,” Wallack said.
New York’s early childhood education program is made up of both private community providers who contract with the city as well as sites located in public schools.center in Jamaica, Queens, that serves 3K, pre-K and 2-year-olds, said in an interview she has open seats because she competes with local public schools to fill them. Oftentimes parents choose the public one for convenience if an older sibling attends K-12 in the same building, she said.
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