Libraries & NYCHA Among Sites For New York City’s Pre-K

Mayor de Blasio -New York City, released a detailed blueprint Monday showing that the city will need to come up with more than 30,000 seats by this fall for Pre-K

According to de Blasio’s plan, the city will guarantee close to 54,000 full-time universal pre-K seats for city students by September 2014. That’s a huge jump from the 16,119 full-time seats currently available inside public schools, as well as the more than 3,000 full-time seats available in community-based organizations.

 Another 20,000 full-day seats will be added by the fall of next year, aiming to have enough spots for every one of the estimated 73,250 4-year-olds, the mayor’s office said.

The city may make room for some of these seats by using space in other city-owned properties, such as “space in branches of the New York Public Library,” according to the report. The mayor’s office added that the city would also look to use space inside public housing complexes. 

The new pre-K seats come with a price tag, and de Blasio hammered home his plan before Albany lawmakers on Monday to pay for the seats through a tax increase on city residents making $500,000 a year or more.

In addition to potentially using library and NYCHA space, the mayor’s office plans to generate the needed seats through a combination of converting the more than 27,000 existing half-day pre-K seats in public schools and community-based programs, as well as getting non-Universal Pre-K-compliant programs into the fold. That includes converting 877 half-day seats currently devoted to students with disabilities into full-time programs, the report says.

The mayor’s office said that the new UPK system will implement the state’s harder Common Core pre-K standards to ensure a consistent high standard for each child enrolled, 

The new system, according to the report, is expected to  provide salaries “sufficient to attract and retain the best certified teachers to lead early childhood classrooms.”

Critics say de Blasio will have an uphill battle to make his case in Albany.