Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer got into a fierce fight Thursday over the city’s ambitious but harried pre-K expansion — in a rare public showdown among Democratic officials in the new administration.
As de Blasio tried to minimize red flags raised by Stringer over faulty and unsubmitted pre-K contracts, Stringer fired back that the mayor’s go-it-alone approach was a risky one.
“To simply say . . . ‘It’s all fine, we don’t need you to take a look, we don’t need you to do your charter-mandated responsibility,’ that’s unacceptable,” the comptroller said.
“I am not going to put New Yorkers in a position where we do not do our independent review, something God forbid happens, and I was asleep at the switch.”
The mayor dismissed Stringer’s alarm over the fact that just 141 of more than 500 contracts had been submitted for approval, even though school starts next Thursday. That initial review found integrity and administrative issues with about half of the contracts.
“I don’t know why any public official would want to leave parents with the impression that there’s a danger when there isn’t a danger,” the mayor said.
Surrounded by a host of commissioners and other elected officials at an elementary school in Brooklyn, Hizzoner emphasized that his administration’s “massive” review of health and safety was more important than making hay over the “nuances” of contracting.
To simply say . . . ‘It’s all fine, we don’t need you to take a look, we don’t need you to do your charter-mandated responsibility,’ that’s unacceptable… I am not going to put New Yorkers in a position where we do not do our independent review, something God forbid happens, and I was asleep at the switch.
- Comptroller Scott Stringer
“Safety of our children is paramount,” he said. “We didn’t come here to educate our children and not attend to their safety.”
The back-and-forth took place as the city announced enrollment had topped more than 50,000 kids at full-day pre-K programs around the city — close to the levels sought.
Last school year, there were just under 20,000 full-day slots, along with about 38,000 half-day slots.
Agency officials said that of the 1,100 community-based programs set to operate this year, roughly 13 still have hazardous building-code, health or other issues that could stop them from opening as planned.
“If in the next couple of days we become convinced . . . that a site is not going to make it and is going to have longer term problems, we’re literally going to pull the kids from that site and give parents an alternative site nearby,” the mayor said.
Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said officials were hurrying to ensure all new pre-K staffers are fingerprinted and have a background check but wouldn’t say what percentage of those workers have been cleared thus far. Workers who haven’t been cleared, but who have submitted their paperwork, can work with kids if they’re under the supervision of someone who’s been approved. Calls to the state agency processing background checks, the Office of Children and Family Services, weren’t immediately returned.