To: Bill DeBlasio, Mayor of NYC and Richard A. Carranza, Chancellor of NYC DOE
Demand Equitable Funding for Community-Based PreK For All!
End the inequitable funding of PreK For All throughout NYC. Demand Mayor DeBlasio increase his PreK For All budget.
Why is this important?
With the release of the RFP (the contract application for Community-Based Centers to receive PreK For All funding), it is clear that any hope of equitable reforms that we were given by the Department of Education are non existent.
Chief among our concerns:
1. The average cost per child remains stagnant.
2. No increase in salaries, which will continue to impede our ability to maintain qualified staff.
3. We are strongly encouraged to provide health insurance and retirement plans though they offer no resources for these exorbitant costs.
4. The life of a contract has now increased from three to five years and the DOE can impose three one year extensions. This means that there will be no funding increase for eight years.
5. Unneeded and wasteful expansion of Pre-K in DOE buildings will continue, which impacts our enrollment.
Community-based organizations like ours have been the backbone of the early childhood community in NYC for generations. When the DOE needed us as their partners, we provided. When the mayor needed to reach his goal of serving 70,000 children, we provided. Again and again, the DOE has come to us when they needed us and now we are being dismissed and ignored as this monopoly of education suffocates us.
Keep small preschools alive!
If you agree with this, please sign this petition, as the Preliminary Budget Hearing for Education is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20, 2019. It is our hope that our organizations can continue to work together with the DOE in serving the needs of young children and their families.
Chief among our concerns:
1. The average cost per child remains stagnant.
2. No increase in salaries, which will continue to impede our ability to maintain qualified staff.
3. We are strongly encouraged to provide health insurance and retirement plans though they offer no resources for these exorbitant costs.
4. The life of a contract has now increased from three to five years and the DOE can impose three one year extensions. This means that there will be no funding increase for eight years.
5. Unneeded and wasteful expansion of Pre-K in DOE buildings will continue, which impacts our enrollment.
Community-based organizations like ours have been the backbone of the early childhood community in NYC for generations. When the DOE needed us as their partners, we provided. When the mayor needed to reach his goal of serving 70,000 children, we provided. Again and again, the DOE has come to us when they needed us and now we are being dismissed and ignored as this monopoly of education suffocates us.
Keep small preschools alive!
If you agree with this, please sign this petition, as the Preliminary Budget Hearing for Education is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20, 2019. It is our hope that our organizations can continue to work together with the DOE in serving the needs of young children and their families.