by Post Editorial Board
February 9, 2015
In his State of the City last week, Mayor de Blasio bragged of having provided seats for 50,000 kids in his “universal pre-k” program. Well, not quite “universal”: It bars nine out of 10 kids at Jewish day schools.
A group of these schools, led by the Orthodox Union, says de Blasio’s pre-k plan left them “out in the cold,” because it requires six hours and 20 minutes of “secular instruction” a day, which leaves no time for privately funded religious instruction.
They say despite several easy fixes — i.e., using the state standard of just five hours a day or offering more part-time pre-k seats — the mayor’s folks haven’t offered any. As a result, 8,000 Jewish day-school kids missed out on this year’s “universal” pre-k and are set to lose out again next year.
To read the rest of this editorial in the New York Post, click here.
To urge Mayor de Blasio to make his Universal Pre-K program truly universal, click here.