Talk pre-K to me, baby!
Mayor Bill de Blasio is so enamored of his wife’s voice that he’s going to make sure as many New Yorkers as possible get to hear it.
As part of a campaign to sign up kids for pre-K classes, the mayor is putting Chirlane McCray’s voice on 311 to explain the program’s benefits.
The campaign will include ads on buses, robocalls to families in public housing, and multilingual canvassing. But it’s McCray on whom de Blasio is counting to get the sign-ups.
At a press conference Thursday in Chinatown, he waxed poetic about McCray’s “mellifluous” tones.
“When you’re on hold with 311, the first lady will tell you how to apply for full-day pre-K for your child,” he said, adding, “Her voice convinced me long ago. I think it will convince parents to go immediately and apply.”
It’s not the first time Hizzoner has enlisted McCray’s voice as a secret weapon.
Her dulcet tones were featured in an ad earlier this year advocating a tax hike on the wealthy to fund pre-K.
“If I had not already been married to Chirlane McCray and I heard her voiceover, let’s just say I’d try to get her phone number,” de Blasio said at the time.
He predicted back then that her voice would have a “siren-like effect” on legislators.
It didn’t. They refused to pass the hike, but agreed to fund pre-K with $300 million a year in state funds — about $40 million less than he said was needed.