New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. joined District Council 1707 AFSCME to oppose Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plans to eliminate kindergarten in day care centers at a City Hall news conference on April 22, 2009. Photo credit Marla Maritzer

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today joined AFSCME DC 1707 in opposing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to move five-year-olds from day care centers to public schools:

“At a time when more New York families need all the support they can get, the Mayor is creating greater stress on parents by cutting pre-kindergarten services instead of expanding them. Not only is the plan to move five-year-olds out of day care centers and into public schools a bad idea, but it also has been a poorly administered effort.”
 
Last month, Thompson sent a letter to the Mayor expressing his concerns about a “poorly administered effort” by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to move five-year-olds out of day care center and into public schools.

“Despite the broad involvement of a number of levels of government, it appears that the coordination failed to result in the involvement of the very families that they were meant to serve,” Thompson said. “Regrettably, the current process seems most notable for its lack of transparency and the absence of community input.”

“Numerous public schools in our City are already operating at, or near, capacity,” Thompson said. “The addition of even one kindergarten class could push a school that is currently straining just below capacity into an overcrowded school.”

“Making smart choices and cost effective changes in the City’s child care programs is both important and sensible, particularly as our City confronts difficult economic conditions,” he said. “However, significant programmatic changes must not be made without appropriate analysis and at the expense of parental and community involvement.”

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