Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday that he is reversing $167 million in planned cuts to preschool programs for 3-year-olds and children with disabilities, a move that comes as the cost of raising children ranks as a major concern for New Yorkers during an election year.
The issue loomed as a potential political vulnerability for Mr. Adams in his re-election bid, and Wednesday’s announcement appeared to serve two purposes: bolstering the mayor’s standing and easing some anxiety for thousands of parents of toddlers and preschoolers.
For a decade, every 4-year-old in New York City has been eligible for a prekindergarten seat. Since taking office, though, Mr. Adams has been dogged by criticism over his cuts to preschool for 3-year-olds and his management of the popular initiative.
But as affordability emerges as a leading theme of the competitive mayor’s contest, nearly every candidate has presented a vision for expanding child care, from creating a universal after-school program to lengthening the school day.
Mayor Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent, has shifted his stance on some issues important to parents. He recently called a state requirement that city schools reduce class sizes a “well-thought-out law” that would benefit families, reversing his long-held position that it represents an “unfunded mandate.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Adams stood alongside his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, to praise him as a “visionary” for his work on child care, saying it had helped parents raise children in New York. Earlier in his term, Mr. Adams criticized the de Blasio administration’s rollout of preschool programs as “unfair” and “just wrong.”
The announcement came as many U.S. cities face mounting pressure to fortify early childhood services. Democratic leaders expressed alarm this week amid reports that President Trump might reduce or eliminate Head Start, a six-decade-old initiative relied on by about 800,000 low-income children nationwide.
In New York, hundreds of children with disabilities lack seats in preschool programs that they are entitled to under federal law, and child care advocates say more money is needed for special education services such as speech therapy, which thousands of students fail to receive each year.
Mr. Adams said that the restored funding — available last year but left out of his initial spending plan this winter — would “become a permanent part of our city’s budget so the programs cannot be tampered with.”
At a news conference at the Education Department headquarters in Manhattan, he called the move a crucial step to “making New York City more affordable, particularly for working-class mothers.”
Nearly every mayoral candidate has made family life a central campaign issue. Parents of young children can spend more than $30,000 each year on child care — and are more likely to move out of the city because of rising costs. Some of Mr. Adams’s opponents criticized his restoration of the funding as doing too little to tackle pressing problems for families.
“It’s not enough,” Zellnor Myrie, a Democratic state senator from Brooklyn who is running for mayor, said in a statement. “That is the bare minimum.”
The uncertainty over child care — and the financial nightmare it creates for families — helped fuel Mr. de Blasio’s push to build a universal preschool program, regarded as his most lasting accomplishment. He said that he was “minding my own business this weekend” when Mr. Adams called, and that he was pleased to join him for the announcement. It was not made “because I was hassling him,” he said.
Mr. de Blasio declined to endorse a candidate for mayor. But he made clear he would not support one Democratic hopeful: former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the front-runner with whom he frequently clashed during his two terms, including over preschool funding.
“I don’t think he should be mayor,” Mr. de Blasio said.
A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The former mayor argued that candidates’ records on child care should be top of mind for voters.
“If we don’t provide them with early childhood education, we’re basically saying, ‘Here’s your ticket to New Jersey or the suburbs,’” he said.
Troy Closson is a Times education reporter focusing on K-12 schools.
The post Adams Cancels Preschool Cuts as Child Care Emerges as Election Issue appeared first on New York Times.
