Estimate for Statewide Pre-K in New York Puts Schools Chief in a Tangle
New York State’s top education official was caught in a battle between city and state leaders on Tuesday after he suggested that providing universal access to prekindergarten would cost substantially more than what Gov.Andrew M. Cuomo had proposed.
John B. King Jr., the state education commissioner, said at a hearing in Albany that the state would have to spend roughly $1.6 billion per year to offer free, full-day prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds. Mr. Cuomo has called for spending an average of $300 million per year.
Dr. King, a mild-mannered former principal, quickly found himself at the center of a heated political brawl. Mr. Cuomo, wary of raising taxes in an election year, is trying to quash a competing plan by Mayor Bill de Blasio, a fellow Democrat, who has proposed a tax increase on high-income New Yorkers to pay for more prekindergarten classes.
Aides to Mr. Cuomo said his proposal, totaling $1.5 billion over five years, would require fewer resources initially because it would take up to a decade