Since the inception of the Mayor’s expanded Universal Pre-K (UPK) program in January 2014, OU Advocacy-Teach NYS has been advocating for full inclusion for all Jewish day school students. Currently, 89 percent of pre-school aged students within the Jewish day school community are not able to participate in a full-day UPK program. This is due to the difficulty Jewish day schools encounter in order to adequately accommodate 6 hours and 20 minutes of uninterrupted secular instruction while maintaining appropriate levels of privately-funded religious instruction.
As the largest provider of non-public education in New York City, Jewish day schools should be a partner in Mayor de Blasio’s UPK program, but his restrictive hour requirements make it impossible for Jewish day schools to participate.
OU Advocacy, together with our coalition of New York City Jewish day schools, has asked the Mayor repeatedly to make the requirements of the full-day UPK program more flexible and to expand the slots available for the half-day UPK program, in order to realize the Mayor’s vision of Universal Pre-K education for every child in New York City. Unfortunately, Mayor de Blasio has responded to our requests with no clear plan or timetable for including Jewish day school students.
Please contact Mayor de Blasio today and urge him to open New York City’s pre-K program to make it truly universal. Ask him to accommodate the Jewish day school community by making the restrictive hour requirements more flexible and adding enough slots to the program for Jewish day school students.
