Good morning. It's Tuesday. Today we'll look at the effects of cuts to the city's 3-K program. We'll also get details on why the former finance chief of the Trump Organization is going back to jail.
For nearly a decade, every 4-year-old in New York has been eligible for a free prekindergarten seat, and 3-year-olds were next in line. With many families spending more than $30,000 a year on child care for a single toddler, the program was intended to make an increasingly unaffordable city somewhat more reasonable. But after Mayor Eric Adams made cuts to free preschool for 3-year-olds, lower- and middle-income families faced enormous uncertainty. I asked Troy Closson, who covers education in New York City, to explain the situation. A lot of parents assumed that 3-K would mean they wouldn't have to pay for child care. What now? That is the question that families are asking. It's not just lowest-income New Yorkers who are struggling. Even solidly middle-class and upper-middle-class people are struggling with child care and housing costs that are unaffordable. We've already begun to see the composition of the city change. A year ago, our colleague Nicole Hong and I were talking to middle-class Black families who had left New York. The common theme was it was too challenging to raise kids here. The pressures that drove those families away have only increased since then, and that directly affects the future of the city. Why, then, did the Adams administration target 3-K for cuts? The mayor has pointed to large numbers of empty seats in some neighborhoods. He has said that his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, rolled out seats too quickly. Adams stopped adding large numbers of seats, especially in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Adams took office in January 2022, after preschool enrollments had dropped nationally because of the pandemic. So now it's unclear what the current needs are in a lot of neighborhoods and whether there will be enough seats for everybody. If you're a parent, it's confusing. Yes. One of the big challenges for parents is thinking about what's going to happen in the coming months and in the coming years. Some city officials have said that everyone will have a 3-K seat somewhere, but before that, in admission sessions and on the Education Department website, parents were told there wouldn't be seats. So it's been a confusing environment for families to navigate. It's made planning for the future really tough if you're the parent of a 1-year-old right now. Do families know about 3-K and pre-K programs? When the de Blasio administration was starting pre-K, there was a big outreach effort. And after the pandemic, places like Chicago and Dallas realized that new outreach campaigns were necessary so families would know how to sign up.
Lately the question has been whether 3-K seats are empty because families don't need them or because families don't know how to get into them, because there hasn't been enough outreach. Does the mayor have an alternative to the pre-K program? When this administration took office, there was a huge backlog and a waiting list for access vouchers that lower child care costs for poorer families. This administration has put a big focus on cutting the backlog and speeding up the process of getting vouchers.
But many folks who work in child care and many early childhood education experts feel there needs to be more done — in particular for the middle class. That was something I heard repeatedly in my reporting: "Our income doesn't qualify us for these child care assistance programs, but we need help." That's one big area where experts and families are saying we need to see more. You wrote that some experts fear a chain reaction: If parents can't get affordable care, they'll move away, and the pipeline for public school enrollment could drop off — prompting spiraling cuts to programs. How realistic is that? It's a realistic concern, even though it might be something we won't be able to assess in the short term. Many families I talked to had been banking on the idea that finally, when their kids turned 3, they could say goodbye to one of their biggest child care bills. That promise had made the bills in the first couple of years of their children's lives worth it.
A lot of them said that even if they weren't ready to pack up and leave, they were starting to reassess whether this is a place they can stay in the long term, and if they want to have more kids, is that possible here? WEATHER It will be a mostly rainy day with temperatures in the low 50s. Expect a chance of rain at night with temperatures sliding into the upper 40s. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until March 24 (Purim). The latest New York news
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. A key figure in Trump's business pleads guilty
Allen Weisselberg's loyalty to Donald Trump again proved paramount. Weisselberg, who was the finance chief officer of the Trump Organization for decades, pleaded guilty to felony perjury charges on Monday. But he did not implicate his former boss, and the plea agreement did not require him to testify against Trump at the first of the former president's criminal trials, scheduled to begin in Manhattan on March 25. Weisselberg's guilty plea will send him back to the city's jail complex on Rikers Island, where he served nearly 100 days after pleading guilty in a separate tax fraud case. How much time he will spend there will be decided at a hearing next month. Prosecutors are asking for a five-month sentence. Weisselberg has found himself caught between Trump and law enforcement agencies before. On Monday he acknowledged that he had lied under oath to the New York attorney general's office in 2020, when prosecutors were investigating Trump on suspicion of fraud. At issue was the value of Trump's triplex apartment in Trump Tower, which measures 10,996 feet but was repeatedly listed at more than 30,000 square feet on Trump's annual financial statements. Weisselberg played down his involvement in valuing the apartment — first in the 2020 deposition and again in another deposition last year. Those depositions were taken for the civil case that ended with a huge financial penalty for Trump — more than $450 million, plus interest. Weisselberg, who was also a defendant in that case, was penalized $1 million, plus interest. Justice Arthur Engoron also banned him from ever working in a financial capacity at any company in New York again. METROPOLITAN DIARY Benched
Dear Diary: I was in the habit of taking walks in Carl Schurz Park on early summer mornings, when the sun cast a lovely orange glow over the quiet East River esplanade. My walk was identical every day. What also became routine was seeing the same older man sitting on the same bench each morning. He held a flat tweed cap in his hands, always gazing wistfully out onto the water. One morning, I decided to talk to him. "Hello," I said, approaching the bench where he was sitting. He looked up. "How do you do?" he said. "I don't mean to bother you, but I see you here every day," I said. "Is that right?" he said. "And if you don't mind me asking, I was curious why you sat on this same bench?" He turned away with a deep sigh. "My wife and I used to sit on this bench together for 51 years," he said. "Oh," I said, feeling badly. "I'm sorry." "And for some bizarre reason she likes to sit over there now," he said, gesturing toward a woman 20 feet to the left of us. — Samuel Willinger Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Sofia Poznansky and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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Tuesday, March 5, 2024
N.Y. Today: Why free 3-K is so crucial for New York City parents
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