New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced new early childhood education investments alongside former Mayor Bill de Blasio, local and city leaders.
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00:00Thank you so much for being here in what I like to think is the best part of Tweed, one of our actual classrooms.
00:08And I am so honored to be here standing alongside our mayor to make such a huge announcement today.
00:19Under this administration, we've invested over $3 billion for 3K and pre-K seats across the city,
00:27expanded access to special education pre-K seats,
00:32and launched a 10-point plan to make high-quality child care more affordable for our futures.
00:39Now I'd like to introduce someone whose unwavering support for our city's youngest learners has led us to today's announcement,
00:46our mayor, Mayor Eric Adams.
00:48Thank you so much and really excited.
00:54You probably didn't notice when he walked in, but we're here with former mayor, Mayor de Blasio.
01:03You know, we cannot say enough.
01:06And part of being a mayor is to ask yourself, what is the legacy you're laying out for the future?
01:13And there is no job that is just so rewarding and challenging than being the mayor of a city in general,
01:25but specifically the mayor of the greatest city on the globe, and that's New York City.
01:30And you cannot talk about the legacy of Mayor de Blasio without talking about what he did around early childhood education.
01:40He just got it. He understood that for far too long we have been embracing the philosophy
01:47of pulling our young people out of the river downstream instead of preventing them from falling in the river
01:55of lack of educational opportunities upstream.
01:58Early childhood education, it works.
02:01No one can argue that.
02:02And far too often, when you go into economically challenging communities that are particularly black and brown
02:09and immigrant communities, they don't have the dollars to give the private tutoring,
02:16to do the early diagnosis, to learning disabilities,
02:20to make sure they get the proper counseling when they're dealing with traumatic experiences throughout their lives.
02:27And this is how you get it right.
02:30I always remember that 11-year-old, when I was in the 88th precinct as a lieutenant
02:34who was arrested for robberies several times, armed robberies,
02:39and he was angry, he was frustrated.
02:42He knew every four-letter word you can imagine.
02:44And it was only through the midnight hours of being a lieutenant
02:47that finally I got him able to talk to me.
02:51When I asked him what was happening with him, the young man just broke down and started crying.
02:56His dad was in jail for a homicide.
02:59His mother was hooked on crack cocaine.
03:03He was out of school for months, and no one checked on him.
03:06We created that problem.
03:09And this administration, following the leadership of the former administration,
03:13he handed off the baton and talked about that.
03:16I remember when he was briefing me, Mayor was briefing me,
03:20in the last few months of his administration sitting at Gracie Mansion,
03:24he talked about this.
03:25He talked about this subject and how we had to continue it, and I heard you.
03:30I heard you.
03:31And we want to make sure we get it right and invest in that.
03:35And, Chancellor, you are focused on this early childhood education,
03:40and it impacts just as former chancellors have as well.
03:44This is the best place to raise our children and families, this place we call New York City.
03:48There's no other place like it, but it is crucial that in the process of raising our children and families,
03:56that we give them the opportunities they deserve.
03:59And last year, we made a commitment that every child who wants a seat will have access to one.
04:05And we lived up to that commitment, and for the first time in the history of the 3K program, that was done.
04:12And now, we're making the commitment again this year.
04:15Today, we are proud to announce that we have once again succeeded in delivering for New Yorkers, especially for our families.
04:23We are here to celebrate a historic, long-term investment in early childhood education that we will be making in our upcoming fiscal 2026 executive budget.
04:39For the first time ever, we will baseline the funding, investing almost $170 million annually to support popular and critical programs like pre-K, special education.
04:53And the expansion of citywide 3K.
05:00Remember, we were walking the streets in Brownsville when you were talking about 3K when you were at the mayor at the time.
05:05Just hats off to Jacba Reese and OMB for keeping our priorities in order.
05:11This is a Herculean task that we are able to accomplish.
05:15We're baselining this.
05:17What does that mean?
05:17In political terms, that means any administration that can come can't screw it up and can't touch it.
05:26It's in the budget, and it will be permanent in the budget.
05:29What does that do?
05:29They give permanency to parents to know that 3K and pre-K in our early childhood programs that we are putting the money for will be in place.
05:41It will become permanent, part of our city's budget, so the programs cannot be tampered with.
05:48And when you think about it, it's a huge, huge step forward.
05:53And because we anticipate real federal changes on federal Head Start funding, we're going to look ahead and think strategically to promote equitable and high-impact results for our youngest students.
06:05We'll be working closely with families throughout the city for the realignment to make sure they are aware of Head Start and all other available early childhood education programs.
06:18We're leaving a lot of resources on the table over and over again.
06:24And when we did an analysis, we saw that there were far too many communities where we needed early childhood education that families were not taking advantage of them.
06:36And that is why we put dollars in the budget to make sure we can go out and tell families that early childhood education is not sitting in front of a television set at home alone.
06:47It is being part of the socialization of other children and learning how to develop your full personhood and the development of your child brain.
06:56Those early years are crucial in the development of a child's brain on so many levels and being around a well-educated and informed school facility and staff could make that happen appropriately.
07:10So we're going to continue to work closely with the families.
07:13And this administration knows that working-class families are the backbone of the city.
07:19That is our North Star to make sure that they can have the opportunities that are available and that a successful early childhood education system is crucial to making New York City more affordable, particularly for working-class mothers.
07:34Our child care blueprint shows that almost 375,000 parents left or downsized their jobs because of COVID-19 pandemic and lack of access to quality child care.
07:50For mothers, the decision to leave the workforce to care for a child can cost up to $145,000 in foregone earnings across their lifetime.
08:01And those are real dollars.
08:04This money is a whole family, the whole family loses when something like this happened and our entire city feels the economic impact.
08:11That is why our plan has been a holistic plan.
08:15Decrease unemployment in black and brown communities but across the entire demographics of the city.
08:20Decrease the cost of childcare from $55 a week to less than $5 a week to expand these seats, 150,000 children participated in the program.
08:33All of these things are part of the holistic approach to improve the lives of working-class families.
08:40So our investment in early childhood education not only takes the bold steps to ensure that our young students have the tools they need to succeed, but also ensure that parents don't have to make the difficult choice between losing income and childcare.
08:55And make no mistake, it hasn't been easy, it hasn't been challenged, it hasn't been difficult.
09:01And every day our OMB director and his team are making these tough choices.
09:09We had to devote $7.5 billion.
09:11And I want to constantly remind New York that $7.5 billion, we had to find a way to fill that hole that caused from the failure of the previous administration in dealing with the migrants and asylum seekers.
09:25No city should have to take upon the economic responsibility of the federal government, and that's what we had to do.
09:31And it impacted many of our services, and we had to navigate through that, and that's what OMB did.
09:37In fact, we have expanded the program to 150,000 children across our entire system.
09:44And that is a record.
09:46And we did it under challenging and difficult economic times.
09:50We increased initial 3K office by 350% last year, compared to 2019, despite the number of applicants more than tripling.
10:02We have also reduced the cost of subsidized childcare for a family of four, as I indicated, down from $55 a week, $220 a month, to less than $20 a month.
10:15Those are real dollars, and they really impact the lives of our family.
10:20That's more than 10 times less than it was previously.
10:23And the average copayment for subsidized childcare is less than $220 per month, and that's from $1,500 in 2022 per child.
10:34But we must be honest.
10:36The easy thing to do is to ignore the challenges within the early child education system, and we're not going to do that.
10:42We must be smarter, we must be in alignment, and we must make sure every child that needs a seat can have a seat.
10:49And today, we're making long-term investments that will make the programs more sustainable into the future for the years to come,
10:57to make New York City continue to be the best place to raise children and families.
11:02The role of chief executives, as the mayor will continue, is to take the baton from previous administrations and continue them out.
11:11And I have to really just take my hat off to the vision of former mayor, Mayor de Blasio,
11:17and how he had that vision, fully understood the power of early childhood education.
11:24We're going to continue that work, and we're hopeful that we will continue this work in the future for all of our children to get the support they need at the beginning stages of education.
11:36If you do it upstream, you won't be pulling children out of the river downstream because of lack of education.
11:43If you don't educate, you will incarcerate.
11:46And that is what we are attempting to do.
11:49We want to educate.
11:51Thank you so much, Mayor.
11:54So now, I have the pleasure to introduce the person whose vision and leadership changed our city by making it a more affordable place for working families.
12:09Ten years ago, his universal pre-K program changed the lives of over 73,000 children and their families
12:17and was the most ambitious early childhood expansion in the nation's history.
12:23Today, we have a record 150,000 children enrolled in our early childhood programs, and the number keeps growing.
12:31Thank you to former Mayor de Blasio.
12:38Well, I'd like to coin a phrase here, tale of two cities.
12:45It was over 10 years ago that I went to Albany to try and get help to make sure we could have pre-K for all.
12:53And the people in New York City had spoken in the 2013 election.
12:56They had spoken resoundingly in favor of helping our youngest children.
13:00And I went to Albany and I found a door that was closed quite often and a lack of support.
13:06And we had to fight and fight and fight to finally get what our children deserved.
13:10I juxtaposed that in my tale of two cities.
13:13I juxtaposed that with what we're seeing here today.
13:16In this case today, I was minding my own business this weekend and Mayor Adams called and said,
13:25we're going to invest more in early childhood education.
13:29And it wasn't because I was hassling him.
13:33It was because he had that commitment to our children.
13:37And I look at what a difference a decade makes.
13:42And I appreciate what the mayor said about his own personal experiences.
13:46Why his life taught him the importance of reaching our young people early and giving them that better option.
13:53And this investment is huge because baseline – I loved your description of baselining, Mayor.
13:58You made it politician-proof.
14:00That's pretty good, you know.
14:03But this is when you really find out what a city is about, what a community is about.
14:08When you say we're not only going to invest, but we're going to invest permanently in our youngest kids, in our families,
14:14to actually give them the chance they deserve in life.
14:17So, Mayor, this is profoundly important.
14:20And if it wasn't baselined, it would be endangered in the future.
14:24There's no question about it.
14:26These are perilous times.
14:27And in these kind of times, we've got to make our priorities even sharper.
14:31We've got to, like, really throw down and say, this is what we're going to do no matter what.
14:34And that's what Mayor Adams has done here today on behalf of our children.
14:38I want to thank the Chancellor.
14:40I really appreciate the great work you're doing.
14:43I want to thank my old friend Jacques Jihad, who the minute I saw him when I came in today, I remembered the many, many unreasonable things I asked him to do.
14:53And the look on his face each time of painful resignation.
14:58And yet, he found a way to achieve these lofty goals and balance the budget at the same time.
15:04And I also want to thank, I know they're not here, but our friends in the City Council, I want to particularly thank Council Member Justin Brannon,
15:10Council Member Rita Joseph, both of whom have been champions for early childhood education.
15:15Look, there's three simple things I want to say, and I'll say them quickly.
15:20Ten years ago, we just passed the ten-year anniversary, the start of the program.
15:26There's been some really interesting reporting kind of bringing those times back.
15:31And I just want to tell you, if you meet anyone who was part of that effort, really just take a moment to appreciate what they did in record time.
15:42What we laid out as a goal to create universal pre-K, and then later 3K.
15:48We ourselves wondered many times whether it was possible.
15:53And the only reason it happened was the extraordinary efforts of public servants who went so far beyond the call, I can't even tell you.
16:00The nights, the weekends, everything. But just the belief in reaching our children.
16:04The mayor said something really important a moment ago, if we didn't do that, a lot of kids, instead of getting the education they deserve,
16:11we're going to spend a lot of time in front of a television, and not get that opportunity to tap into their potential.
16:19That fueled us back in 2014. We knew if we failed in 2014, we would lose that year of children.
16:28That group of kids' futures hung in the balance. And that's what kept us going every single time.
16:35But I just got to say, folks, in this building and beyond, did unbelievable things.
16:40And it's a time in history when public servants are under attack, wrongfully.
16:45But if any New Yorker saw what happened in those months in 2014, and how much commitment and love people put into their work,
16:52they would be very, very proud of their city government. And they should continue to be proud of their city government today with this announcement.
16:58The second thing I want to say is, there is a profound moral question here. Are we going to build a society where everyone gets an equal opportunity, or are we not?
17:09When we invest in early childhood education, we create something that actually lives up to the ideals of this country and this city.
17:16We say every child should start at the same starting line. We understand there are profound disparities in our society.
17:24But here's something where we can actually get it right. And we know, it doesn't matter which zip code you're in,
17:30there are kids who will do extraordinary things for humanity. They're just given that chance.
17:35And when they get early childhood education, quality early childhood education, for free, it gives each child that pathway
17:43that before was literally closed off to them simply because of economics. So this is why it's just so profound.
17:50The last thing I want to say is to pick up on the mayor's point about affordability. This is the best place to raise a child anywhere in the country.
17:57I don't have a doubt about it. By the way, the kids who go through New York City public schools are the best prepared for life of any children anywhere.
18:04They can do anything. They've been through it all. They know how to deal with all of humanity. We are blessed in this city.
18:10But let's face it, it's a tough place to live on a lot of levels. And it's a place that we have a profound affordability challenge.
18:16I cannot tell you how many people have come up to me over the last decade and said the reason they could live in New York City,
18:23they could stay in New York City, was because early childhood education was for free.
18:27And that's across the spectrum, every conceivable kind of New Yorker.
18:32I duly note that a lot of folks who bring their talents to this city, homegrown or they come from elsewhere, they want to be here.
18:40And if we don't provide them with early childhood education, we're basically saying, here's your ticket to New Jersey or the suburbs.
18:47But when we do this, and the mayor's done something really important here today by sending a message to so many New Yorkers,
18:55we want you here, we need you here, and we're going to take care of your kids to make sure that this community can be strong.
19:02So this is profoundly important. We have more work to do always.
19:06And I want to particularly thank the mayor and the chancellor for their focus on kids with special needs, special education kids,
19:12at the early childhood level, that was an area we honestly needed to do more in.
19:17And you took that baton and went much farther, and I'm deeply appreciative for that.
19:21But the bottom line is, this is progress, real progress today for our children and families and for more affordable New York.
19:29So it's something to celebrate. Thank you, mayor.
19:37Thank you so much.
19:38And there are so many people here today who made this remarkable moment happen, and we want to make sure that we do not fail to mention them.
19:47So first of all, I want to thank Deputy Mayor Ana Al-Mansar for her leadership in this space.
19:57And his name has been called a few times, but you can't call it enough.
20:00Thank you to OMB Budget Director Jacques Jehan for finding the dollars to the tune of almost $170 million to baseline early childhood.
20:13Deputy Chancellor Simone Hawkins.
20:17And Deputy Chancellor Christina Foti.
20:31Both of them continue to advocate for our youngest learners, and I'm so proud to be on a team with them.
20:38Tara Gardner, the Executive Director of the Day Care Council representing our local providers.
20:45And our many partners and our advocates in this space from our providers to our elected officials.
20:54And so I'm thrilled to be here today, not only as a lifelong educator and as Chancellor, but really my first role in everything is as a mom.
21:04And if you don't know that to be true, you might have seen me do a little weird movement earlier where I tapped my head and went like this, and that was to tell my own daughter in the audience to take her hood off.
21:13Now she's hiding.
21:18Everybody look at her now.
21:21But I know firsthand the importance of high quality early childhood education.
21:29And I remember my time transitioning to principal when my daughter was an infant and trying to figure out what that looked like and being able to rely on my mom and my sister.
21:41But at some point they said, that's this, you got to figure it out.
21:45And that, what the mayor was talking about is having to choose between your career and your family.
21:53That is a real thing for all families, but historically, especially for women.
22:00And as we look at the incredible things that women do in leadership every single day, I'm just touched that as Chancellor, I get to stand here with not one but two mayors who have made this happen for New York City.
22:14And all of you should be equally proud because these are the types of opportunities that make this the best place to raise children and the best place to develop yourself and know that anything is possible in a city this great.
22:28And so when our youngest learners are set up to thrive, so are their families.
22:33Their parents and guardians can balance childcare with their own careers.
22:38And our babies can get a jump start on learning to read, do math, and develop social and emotional skills.
22:44And the changes that we are making, baselining funding, doubling down on our commitment to 3K and special education, and realigning head start seats to meet community need are going to create a more nimble and robust early childhood landscape for us in the long run.
23:04And now in Spanish?
23:11Yes man.
23:12Yes but...
23:13Yes man.
23:14Yes?
23:15Yes man.
23:16Yes se!
23:17Bye jagzer!
23:18My name is Rachel.
23:19Yes ma'am.
23:20Yes ma'am
23:21Yes and honor!
23:22Yes ma'am.
23:23Yes ma'am.
23:24Yes ma'am.
23:26Yes ma'am.
23:29Yes ma'am.
23:30Yes ma'am.
23:32Ejecutivo del próximo año fiscal 2026.
23:37Por primera vez, contaremos con financiamiento garantizado con una inversión de casi 170
23:45millones anuales para respaldar programas muy valoradas por las familias como educación
23:52especial de pre-kinder y la ampliación de nuestro programa de 3K a toda la ciudad.
23:58When we care for our babies, starting from the earliest ages, we set them up for bold futures.
24:06And I'm so proud to do this work with all of you.
24:08And now I'd like to introduce another special guest to speak to all of us, Tara Gardner,
24:15the Executive Director of the Daycare Council, which represents over 120 agencies that operate
24:21more than 250 publicly and privately funded child care centers and family child care programs
24:28across New York City.
24:35Good morning.
24:36Good morning.
24:38Thank you, Mayor Adams, Deputy Mayors Almanzar and Miles Gustav, Chancellor Aviles-Ramos,
24:47Deputy Chancellor Hawkins, Executive Director Cartwright, and all of the leaders and early
24:52childhood educators here today.
24:55I am Tara Gardner, the Executive Director of the Daycare Council of New York.
25:01And like the Chancellor said, we represent New York City's center-based early childhood
25:07education programs.
25:08And we also serve as New York City's Child Care Resource Center in partnership with the
25:14the Chinese American Planning Council, the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, and the Child
25:20Development Support Center.
25:22Safe, high-quality, affordable, and reliable child care is vital to New York City's economic
25:29health.
25:30As a Head Start graduate, that's me.
25:33I know firsthand the profound impact early childhood education has on young children and their families.
25:44Against the backdrop of the challenges facing our sector, including significant state funding
25:49shortfalls and threatened federal Head Start funding, today's announced long-term investments
25:55in 3K and preschool special education, and the commitment to New York City's Head Start programming
26:01provide crucial sustainability.
26:04Most importantly, they guarantee that child care seats and critical services remain available
26:10to families and children across all boroughs and neighborhoods, regardless of what happens
26:15at the federal level.
26:17These investments represent meaningful progress as we continue advocating for an early child care
26:23system where the workforce is valued and all families, particularly those most in need, have access to care
26:31and the opportunities they deserve.
26:39Doesn't Bill look so calm and beautiful now?
26:43Oh, boy.
26:47And by the way, to the media, you are all beautiful.
26:50I want to say.
26:51Oh, man, what is this, a skit for the inner circle?
26:58Yeah, take a couple of questions.
26:59Well, one of you was on time, right?
27:05Yes, that's the joy of finishing, you know?
27:12Oh, man.
27:14Hey.
27:16Hey.
27:16Maybe this is a question for D.C. Hawkins or whoever wants to answer it.
27:20Can you give us a little bit of insight into what exactly is changing with Head Start?
27:25How many seats are really being shifted to these younger grades and how you see that?
27:30Who wants to answer that?
27:34Good morning.
27:35Good morning.
27:36Good morning.
27:36And so because of that commitment, I can lead by saying there will be limited shifts.
27:43What I would add to that is putting aside what we are experiencing at the federal level, we
27:50had, as a result of an audit, we were required to recompete for our five-year grant.
27:54That grant supported about 6,000 seats from birth through five.
27:59And so because we wanted to submit a viable application, because we know that the needs
28:03around and within communities are changing, we'll really, you know, families need the
28:07support of younger, for younger age children.
28:11We did submit an application that would increase our early Head Start seats.
28:16Those are the seats that serve birth to two-year-olds.
28:18And so, again, we are waiting to hear back about our application.
28:22Either way, as you heard here today very clearly, there's a commitment to ensure sustainability
28:26across the Head Start sector, and so we plan to do that.
28:32Okay, I've got two that I'm going to try to cram in here.
28:35One is on Head Start, I know you had to reapply because of the audit, but also in the last week,
28:41the President has raised the specter of completely defunding Head Start.
28:45So what happens, if that happens, would you commit to making up the entire $60 million
28:50that the city currently has for Head Start if the funding were to go away altogether?
28:55We're not going to go into hypotheticals.
28:59Today we're announcing our commitment, and we're not going to move away from our commitment.
29:03And then just on having Mayor de Blasio here with you today, you were very kind about pre-K
29:08and 3-K today.
29:09In the past, you've been somewhat critical about the rollout, particularly around 3-K, and
29:13about the failure to have enough seats for students with special needs.
29:17I'm just curious, to the former mayor, what you made of some of that criticism, and to
29:21the current mayor, what kind of brought you here together today?
29:25And that's it.
29:25The most important thing is one can have differences on applications, implementations, but we don't
29:32differ on the foundation.
29:34The foundation is early childhood education.
29:37And I'm pretty sure in six years, whoever comes after me, they're going to look at some
29:43of my ways of doing things.
29:45But the principles are always intact.
29:47He was clearly the visionary.
29:49We firmly believe in what he was doing in early childhood education.
29:53We always would look at a mayor or executive and say, I would have done something differently,
29:58but it doesn't take away from the foundation.
30:00He believed in early childhood education.
30:03We are joined at the hip, and now we're building on what he started.
30:10Juliet.
30:11Yes, good morning.
30:12How are you?
30:12Good morning.
30:13I'm good.
30:14How are you?
30:15So, A, is there a waiting list?
30:17You're guaranteeing every child, but is there a waiting list to get into the program?
30:22And B, do you have enough teachers to cover all these students?
30:25We stated last year, we lived up to it, every child that desires a seat will have access
30:33to a seat, and we're not moving away from that.
30:36And how about teachers?
30:37Well, you know, we announced the other day, standing with the chancellor and our friends
30:42in the unions, particularly Henry Rubio, we announced the recruitment effort, putting the
30:54money into recruiting more teachers.
30:57We're going to be focused on delivering on our promises that we always made, promise made,
31:01promise kept.
31:02I used to always hear Bill say that, and we've lived on to that, on that, and we're going
31:06to continue that.
31:08Alex.
31:09Mike.
31:10Chuck.
31:11How are you?
31:11Good.
31:12How are you?
31:12Good.
31:13On the funding, so this was left out of your preliminary budget in January, so what changed
31:21in the three months since then, and then just on that, you've talked a lot about this misalignment
31:27between seats and demand in the system, and so what are the status of your efforts to kind
31:32of move around seats, and do you expect more of that?
31:35Yeah.
31:37The budget, as we say over and over again, it doesn't seem to really catch on, but we try
31:43to be as clear as possible.
31:44It's a moving document.
31:45And, you know, no one knew some of the uncertainties that we're facing now.
31:52You don't know those uncertainties when you first sit down, and so that moving document
31:57continues to evolve, and this is one of those good evolutions.
32:01Sometimes the evolution is not the best evolution, but this is part of the moving, breathing document
32:08of a budget, and we want it to be very clear that we're going to baseline the funding for
32:13child care in this budget, and we're moving forward with that.
32:19And so you're going to hear a lot of announcements we're making.
32:22You're going to hear a lot of shifting because the economic uncertainties are what they are,
32:26and we need to be prepared.
32:28Remember, we have to balance our budget by law, by law, and we don't always get the luxury
32:33of being able to, you know, see where these dollars are going to come from.
32:38We have to deal with the economic uncertainties.
32:40No one knew we were going to spend $7.5 billion on migrants and asylum seekers.
32:45We have to adjust.
32:46We have to shift to that.
32:49Yeah, what we found, when you talk about, nothing gets more emotions in this city than what happens
32:57with children, and when you look, when we looked at some of the seats, the administration had
33:04the idea, as the mayor just pointed out, the challenges, challenges was put in place.
33:10He built a system from ground up.
33:13A retrospective observation of the system is easy to be critical of it, but when you're
33:19building that system and you want to meet the deadline of 2014, was it, mayor?
33:24Of 2014, every child he did not get in the system was a child that could be on the pathway
33:29of not getting an education.
33:31Now, it was our obligation sitting down with the chancellor and OMB to say, okay, are we
33:40aligned correctly?
33:42That was our obligation, and that's what we're doing.
33:44That's a painful moment because there are those who are attached to their particular child
33:49care location but may not have the density that's needed.
33:53And so, we have to be sensitive on how do we address that without traumatizing families
33:58and children, and that's what we've been doing.
34:01And these are tough choices.
34:03This is a question from the former mayor.
34:06Can you speak to the current mayor's previous criticisms of the way that the 3K program
34:11is managed, and can you share who you support in the mayor's race?
34:14Well, that took a strange turn.
34:21Well, I do not believe we're discussing the mayor's race right now.
34:25That was easy.
34:26Look, I think Mayor Adams makes a fair point that every administration is going to come
34:31in and make their own assessment.
34:32I really believe that the team that I had did some great work, and I'm always going to say
34:38that.
34:38And I've said that to you.
34:39We talked way back when about this.
34:42And I do think that one of the things that government always needs to do better is connecting
34:49with the people we serve.
34:50So we learned in the process of building Pre-K for All, and then 3K, that so many parents
34:59historically didn't hear enough from the Department of Education or any other agency about what
35:05the truth was about the service being provided to them.
35:09And we did a very, very aggressive outreach effort in the beginning of Pre-K for All and
35:13a very aggressive facilitated enrollment effort.
35:15And I think that model is a great model for all parts of government going forward.
35:19So I would certainly say double down on that to ensure that these programs reach the most
35:26children and families and have the most impact.
35:29But again, I'm not sweating the past.
35:32What I care about is here is this moment where this mayor had a choice, and he chose to baseline.
35:40And it's an uncertain time.
35:43I really want to commend him for this.
35:44I've been talking to mayors and governors all over the country.
35:46This is a – I'm going to use a political science term here.
35:50This is a freaky time in government, okay?
35:52And this is really weird stuff is happening in our nation's capital.
35:56And so that uncertainty is deeply affecting local governments.
36:00For the mayor and his team to say, you know what, despite that, we are doubling down on early
36:04child education and we're baselining this money, I say amen.
36:07I'm not dwelling on the past.
36:09I say amen because this means a lot of kids now and in the future will benefit.
36:14Last question, Melissa.
36:15Also a question for Mayor de Blossom.
36:17I can.
36:18I know you said that would have to –
36:19The nostalgia, you could cut it with a knife here.
36:22And Juliet's going to tell me someplace that there's not proper testing being provided.
36:28You know, that's like – yes, exactly.
36:32We all feel happy.
36:34Well, since we're having flashbacks, I know you said you're not discussing the mayor's race
36:37right now.
36:37But respectfully, you did raise in your remarks just a few minutes ago some of the obstacles
36:42that you faced as a new mayor trying to get your pre-K plan through.
36:47And I don't want to assume, but I am assuming maybe you can clarify.
36:53Are you talking about resistance that you brought from Albany and from the governor?
36:56And is that why you brought that up here today?
36:59Because, you know, certain people's views on early childhood education have been important
37:04in this race that we are –
37:06It's not just about any particular election.
37:09It's a bigger point.
37:12You know, you either stand for early childhood education or you don't.
37:15And I just think everyone's record should be remembered.
37:19So, you know, I was pretty clear that the people in New York City made a decision – by
37:25the way, I'd like to remind everyone in the general election of 2013, that verdict was
37:30by 73 percent of the vote of the people in New York City – to endorse a program that
37:35was led by pre-K for all.
37:39And I had to fight and fight and fight in Albany.
37:43And it's just – that's part of the record.
37:45And the people will remember that, I believe, and I think they should remember it.
37:49And the most important reason I say that is, if anybody out there wants to talk about this
37:55issue, I say prove it.
37:57Prove it.
37:58Prove your commitment.
37:59And I appreciate that Mayor Adams is doing that today.
38:02Thanks, guys.
38:04Thanks.
38:05Thanks.
38:06Thanks.
38:07Thanks.
38:08Thanks.
38:09Thanks.
38:10Thanks.
38:11Thanks.
38:12Thanks.
38:13Thanks.
38:14Thanks.
38:15Thanks.
38:16Thanks.
38:17Thanks.
38:18Thanks.
38:19Thanks.
38:20Thanks.
38:21Thanks.
38:22Thanks.
38:23Thanks.
38:24Thanks.
38:25Thanks.
38:26Thanks.
38:27Thanks.
38:28Thanks.
38:29Thanks.
38:30Thanks.