Mayor de Blasio has become notorious for turning up late for his public appearances. That’s annoying — but it now seems to be spilling over to how he runs the city.
Which is why we’re glad to see Comptroller Scott Stringer calling the mayor to task because his Department of Education still hasn’t submitted more than 70 percent of its pre-K contracts to the comptroller’s office for the required vetting.
The mayor’s response? He dismissed Stringer’s alarm as “administrative paperwork” and suggested the comptroller was recklessly alarming the public.
Much of de Blasio’s political capital rides on next week’s rollout of the massive pre-K expansion, the centerpiece of his mayoral campaign. So you’d think he would be extra careful to ensure everything goes right.
Especially since the city is more than doubling the 20,000 students already enrolled in pre-K, with ambitions to take the total to 70,000 by next fall.
Adding to the problem here is that many of the outfits with which the city is contracting are entirely new to the program — which makes the need for outside review all the more critical.
Among Stringer’s concerns was a vendor who had six violations for failing to screen personnel for child-abuse allegations. Another had hired someone accused of disseminating child porn. De Blasio says these have all been dealt with.
We’ve been skeptical on whether universal pre-K is the educational panacea the mayor insists it is.
But if it’s to be done, it should be done properly. Kudos to Scott Stringer — a pre-K supporter — for doing his job and holding the mayor’s feet to the fire.