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Council Member Restler discusses early childhood education funding and capacity
1:38:55
·
7 min
Council Member Lincoln Restler addresses the Department of Education officials, praising their efforts while highlighting ongoing concerns about early childhood education in New York City. He discusses the recent baselining of funding for early childhood programs, but emphasizes that more needs to be done to address declining enrollment and capacity issues in pre-K and 3-K programs.
- Restler expresses concern about the decline in pre-K enrollment, down by 20,000 children from eight years ago.
- He questions the DOE's goal of 95% operational capacity for 3-K and pre-K programs, arguing it's too tight and impossible to achieve.
- The council member calls for better outreach and engagement to expand participation in early childhood education programs.
Lincoln Restler
1:38:55
Great.
1:38:56
Thank you very much chairs Brandon and Joseph.
1:38:58
Appreciate your leadership.
1:38:59
And, you know, I wanna just firstly thank the chancellor and your senior team for making yourselves available and problem solving with me and my team.
1:39:13
The first deputy chancellor and your chief operating officer have been engaging with us on school class size concerns.
1:39:21
Kevin and the DSF team are expert problem solvers.
1:39:25
I mean, they just, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, do an amazing job.
1:39:29
And I've been really pleased by the appointment of deputy chancellor Hawkins in particular.
1:39:35
And I just have felt a sea change in the approach on early childhood education, and a desire to partner with communities and try to make things work.
1:39:44
That being said, and and and I I really wanna thank, you know, you all at the last our preliminary budget hearing.
1:39:53
Sarita and the team testified to your support for funding early childhood education, which was not in the mayor's preliminary budget, and it was a bold thing for you all to do that, and to partner with the city council in saying we need this money, and we need it baselined, and I credit you for partnering with us to demand that early childhood funding, and for securing it.
1:40:12
And we're pleased to see it in the mayor's executive budget.
1:40:14
But it's clear to me that it's still not enough.
1:40:17
You know, yesterday, we got a phone call from a student from a family in Downtown Brooklyn who got assigned a pre k seat in Bed Stuy.
1:40:24
Right?
1:40:24
It's a fifty seven minute walk from their home.
1:40:27
And, you know, with 51,000 applications, we're down 20,000 kids from how many we had in pre k eight eight years ago.
1:40:37
It's a major decline that we've experienced.
1:40:39
And and I don't I don't know.
1:40:41
A three of 10 three out of ten four year olds in New York City just disappeared?
1:40:45
I mean, I don't I mean, I I think that we've seen some out migration and there have been some demographic shifts, but but I am really concerned about the decline and the shrink, the the retreat of our our pre k system.
1:40:57
So, you know, I appreciate deputy chancellor Hawkins, responded to to chair Joseph in in kind of acknowledging that are many challenges that we're facing with our early childhood education system right now, but I do really think we need to do more on the outreach side.
1:41:13
And the second piece I just wanna to raise, and then I'll shut up on this, is the first deputy chancellor testified at our prelim budget hearing that your goal for the kind of operational capacity of three k and pre k is 95%, which just seems a little bonkers to me.
1:41:32
I don't know how we manage a system at 95% capacity.
1:41:35
That means that if 14 out of 15 kids are in a three k classroom, we're not at at the goal for capacity.
1:41:42
There is just it's too tight and I think impossible to achieve, and it means that families lose out neighborhood by neighborhood across the city.
1:41:51
So just wanted to, a, give you all a chance to modify that answer if you'd like to, or dig in, whichever you choose, and to help us understand how do we do better at expanding engagement in our early childhood education system.
UNKNOWN
1:42:06
Council member, thank you so much for your partnership and for the compliment.
1:42:10
That means a lot coming from you.
Melissa Aviles-Ramos
1:42:14
We we are also very excited about deputy chancellor Hawkins being She's
Lincoln Restler
1:42:19
doing a great job.
Melissa Aviles-Ramos
1:42:20
And before I pass it over to her to to talk all things early childhood, I I wanna just say that this is true for not only early childhood, but everything else.
1:42:30
We are definitely on the right track in moving this system, but we know that a lot of work needs to be done, and we are far from from being done.
1:42:37
Right?
1:42:37
And that's why the partnership with all of you is so important because you hold us accountable.
1:42:41
Yep.
1:42:41
You say, great job.
1:42:44
Add a team, but you gotta do more.
1:42:45
And without that level of accountability and specificity, it's very hard for us to move our plans forward.
1:42:49
So I do wanna thank you.
1:42:50
And with that, you can have fun with deputy chancellor Hall.
Justin Brannan
1:42:54
I know.
1:42:54
Sounds like Dan
UNKNOWN
1:42:55
and Simone both wanna jump in on this
Lincoln Restler
1:42:56
one, but however you wanna handle.
Simone Hawkins
1:42:59
I just wanted to sit in that your your gratitude, council member.
1:43:03
Thank you so much.
1:43:04
And, you know, it is definitely mutual.
1:43:07
Thank you for your partnership.
1:43:09
Thank you for many of your partnership along the way.
1:43:12
And so, to clarify, that 95% number is specific to Head Start, right?
1:43:17
And actually, and let me take a step back, Head Start requires 97%.
1:43:22
We do not look at 95% as a metric across the entire you know funded and supported system through under New York City public schools, but in regards to really moving toward that number, we're not looking at 90% to make determinations on increasing capacity.
1:43:39
We are encouraging that so our provider base, specifically our CBOs and contracted providers who are also a family child care can maximize their revenue.
1:43:48
And so, you want to ensure that they have the most amount of money so they can have high quality care for for their for their families.
Lincoln Restler
1:43:55
What is the capacity goal for three ks and pre k then system wide?
1:43:59
If if I'm referring to what was
Simone Hawkins
1:44:02
The capacity goal is always a %.
Lincoln Restler
1:44:04
But but operationally, it's hard to function at a %.
1:44:07
Is what's the operational I mean, you need some wiggle room in a system.
1:44:10
What are we looking at as a goal?
Simone Hawkins
1:44:12
And so I would say the answer to that is it's iterative.
1:44:15
Right?
1:44:15
We're constantly looking at it.
1:44:16
It's we it's definitely continuous quality improvement.
1:44:19
We're looking at numbers on a monthly basis because they're funded monthly.
1:44:23
And so there's enough leeway and runway to make adjustments if we need to, but also start to have conversations with you all to really problem solve.
1:44:31
I mean, think many of you are aware real estate is is is an is a problem here, and so we can't just continue to open up new seats.
1:44:40
But where we can convert, where we can add in vacant spaces that we currently have in our portfolio, we wanna at those.
1:44:45
And so this partnership is helpful.
1:44:47
I understand what you're saying about, you know, having some wiggle room and not get to a point where families don't have an option, but because we do have year round enrollment, because we are looking at this on a continuous basis, it's not a problem that I think we're gonna run into.
1:45:02
I will say that.
Lincoln Restler
1:45:03
I hear you and I'm over time.
1:45:05
I just think from a optimal standpoint, we would have a enrollment capacity for the system and a goal for the percentage enrollment within that system.
1:45:18
And so I do think having those metrics that we're working toward and pushing on outreach and pushing on engagement with our providers is helpful because, you know, I hear you, it's iterative and that we're working month by month and that you're working to make improvements and fixing a system where there have been a lot of different challenges, and I think you've been making progress in those areas, and I appreciate your partnership with myself and other colleagues to that to that effect.
1:45:42
But I still think North Star for holding ourselves accountable and for growing the system as much as we should, Having those metric goals is really important.
1:45:49
I'm over on time, so I I will see if there's time for more later, but I I appreciate the answers today, and I just appreciate your willingness to work with us to try to maximize three k capacity, in particular, across District 33.
1:46:04
And I appreciate the first deputy chancellor and and deputy chancellor Vadero's work with us, especially on PSA eight and class size compliance, we're very we continue to be very concerned about.
1:46:13
Thank you.