Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Holds a Press Conference With Governor Hochul and Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels to Launch 2-K on First Day of School
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here in Washington Heights on the first day of school alongside Governor Hochul, Chancellor Samuels, parents, educators and an assortment of New York's cutest. I also want to acknowledge we have our deputy chancellor of Finance, Administration, Human Resources, Lindsey Oates, who is here with us; First Deputy Chancellor Danielle Giunta, who is with us; as well as the executive director of the Dominican Women's Development Center, Marielys Divanne. We want to say thank you to all of them for all the incredible work that they do. Thank you so much, Marielys. Now, for children beginning their schooling journey at places like Mamá Tingó and across the city this morning, today is a day of firsts. It is the first time that they will hug their parents' goodbye at the classroom door, and the first they'll form a friendship over a shared crayon. And I'm so excited that they will do these things as the first members of New York City's inaugural 2-K class. For many parents, today is also a day of motion. Some may have had to run back home to grab the backpack they packed twice. Many ate breakfast standing up or over the sink. Others may have budgeted more time than they thought they needed and still ended up sprinting to the childcare program in their neighborhood, which, while only being a few blocks away, is quite the distance when you're towing a toddler that won't stop talking about how much they love the color orange. And yet, while this morning has brought a new kind of stress to thousands of young families across the city, it is the stress of excitement and new beginnings, not the stress of wondering whether they can afford to be here at all. Once again, I would like to thank Governor Hochul for her partnership in making sure that is the case for the thousands of parents whose child will now have free 2-K in their neighborhood as a result of the state's partnership and leadership. Today, I will be doing my best effort at matching the pace of a New York City parent. Ours is a city that never stops, that runs fast, and New Yorkers deserve a school system that does the same and works as hard as the people of the city do. That is why today I'm also proud to announce that we are supporting educators across the public school system by providing them with the supplies and technology they need. We are training staff so that every purchase is made right the first time, and the classroom no longer has to wait on a second attempt. We are modernizing decades-old software so orders for paper and pencils will no longer fall through the cracks. And we are canceling the contracts that no longer serve our students, teachers and school staff. These changes will save more than $100 million over the next two years alone; $100 million that we will be able to reinvest in our school system and use to support our educators, our staff and students as they prepare for another year of school. As we usher in this new year, I want to thank all those who make days like today possible. To the custodian who arrived before sunrise to make sure a classroom was ready, to the bus driver who waited an extra minute because a child was still tying their shoes, to the teacher or paraprofessional who prepared tissues for a child who might cry at drop-off and a parent who might cry even harder. You keep our schools and our city in motion every single day. You make it possible for our kids to learn in the quality schools that they deserve. And for that, every one of us here is always thankful. Thank you so much. And with that, I want to pass it over to our governor, Kathy Hochul.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, you know, one of the first things that I heard this morning was even just at Mamá Tingó is that there's more than 100-person waitlist or 100-child waitlist, rather, for two-year-olds. And schools have now started making offers off of the waitlist. So, that number is starting to move. And we're excited because, as you've heard the governor say, this is something that is for 2,000 seats this year, 12,000 seats next year. And we are excited to keep working together because what we're talking about is something that is transformative. We're talking about families not having to pay $20,000 a year at least for this kind of childcare and for the chance of a child like Luna or Lunita to be in a classroom alongside so many other children whose lives are now going to be transformed.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that the best way to win the trust of parents and earn their faith in this program is by delivering. And we've already been able to read the stories of so many parents who are now able to join the workforce because of this program, who are able, you know — I think the governor and I met a parent at our last announcement together who told us that now they were actually able to go back to work and what it was going to mean for their family and that they had found a placement at a center that was, I think, three blocks away from their home. Although that might feel like 12 blocks when you're walking with a toddler. And what we also know, and whether it's at Mamá Tingó or wherever else across the city, the demand is far more than 2,000 seats, and that's an opportunity for us to scale this up not just to 12,000, but to always ask ourselves, how can we make this the program that New Yorkers deserve? Because the governor has long said that our families are her fight and childcare has been her focus. And when we talk about cost-of-living crisis here in New York City, childcare is the driver after housing. For a family of three to afford childcare, just for a single child, $334,000 is how much they're supposed to make a year. That is far out of reach for most New York families. We have to be the difference there. I don't know, Governor, if you want to add anything.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think it's critically important that we both address longstanding issues in our New York City Public School system and advance an agenda that makes it more affordable for families to stay in the city. You've heard it from the governor, and you've heard from me as well that so many families are being pushed out of the city, out of this state because they can't afford the cost of childcare. This is going to be transformative to that end. And for any provider that has reached out for a loan, we are turning those loans around in five business days. We have registered over 500 contracts, and when it comes to those loans, we've actually dispersed more than 300 thus far. These are interest-free loans that we have also dispersed alongside the supplying of first-day-of-school supplies for a number of providers that may have needed it, and I want to also just say thank you to our chancellor and to New York City Public Schools staff who have been working around the clock to make sure that they're available for any and all concerns. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I think it's an incredibly important point, which is how do we ensure the flourishing not just of each individual child, but for the system as a whole. And that is why today we didn't want it just to be an announcement of the first day of school, though that's incredibly exciting, but also coupling that with an announcement around procurement reform. Because the better that we can steward our public school system, the more faith that New Yorkers will have in that system. And again, this is not a debate that we want to win on the rhetoric that we use. It's a debate we want on the results that we can deliver. And that's what we're looking to do, and that's why I have full confidence in our chancellor, because we have a vision of delivering excellence in our public school system, and it's all the more possible when you have a partner like Governor Hochul who looks at these children and sees the potential of our city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that it is not only possible but necessary to be able to do both. And you heard it from the chancellor, one of the focal points of this proposal is one-business-day turnaround. So, it's not the fact of less review; it's the fact of a more rapid response. And it is critical because in New York City, especially, time is money. And we see too much time being spent on delays that, when we look at where they come from, they're actually coming from within City government, and it's time to actually bring that to an end. [Crosstalk.] First, I just want to appreciate the governor for the funding that was provided allowed us to continue offering the vouchers that had been promised in years past. That is critically important to ensure that we can continue to deliver for those families who have come to rely on that. And also, we've been able to take away the cost of a number of those vouchers as well that we've seen were being charged to a number of lower-income New Yorkers. And the conversations will always continue. The governor has supported childcare before I was in office and continues to be a leader on that. But our focus right now is how do we continue to steward that program and better deliver for families. I don't know, Governor, if you want to add.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI definitely support any resolution towards ensuring that we live up to the statement of “never forget.” And we know that for many, many New Yorkers now, they were born in a world where 9/11 had already happened. So, it wasn't a personal experience as it was for so many of us. And I also want to credit the 9/11 Museum for the incredible work they do in providing that kind of education, [and] also in providing a number of modules for educators across the country to teach their students exactly that. What I'll say is that in terms of what we are currently teaching our students, it has the chancellor and my support, and also if there are any efforts to increase that kind of education towards greater awareness, I will also support those efforts.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWhen we are talking about these kinds of providers, I think you are absolutely correct that they deserve not only recognition, but a real sense of appreciation from all of us for the incredible work that they do and the difference that they make for families across the city. And as you said, sometimes we're speaking about centers, sometimes about home-based providers. And I was both proud and surprised to have apparently been the first mayor to visit a home-based provider earlier this year. And many New Yorkers turn to them because of the cultural and linguistic fluency that they have and can offer. And when it comes to our goal, it is to ensure that we are registering every single contract. We have registered over 500 thus far. And also, that we provide these loans in the interim, in the process of that registration, so that no provider has to wait on registration to be able to access those kinds of funds. I am fully confident in our team in continuing that work. And also, we know that this is going to be a critical part of delivering universal childcare and we are looking forward to it. Thank you very much.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, on your first question, Katie, we are continuing to support and increase our funding of New York City Reads and Solves. We think that that is critical in not only the question of literacy but also in response to the question of these scores. And, to your second question, you know, every day is an opportunity to do more for the children of this city. And we will not accept that just because something has always been the case, that it will always have to continue to be the case. When it comes to our buses, we are doing everything we can to ensure that every single student is able to get to school. For the vast majority of them, it means a bus route. For some of them it means prepaid rideshare cards as well as OMNY activation. And we are also working at addressing this for what you described it as, which is a long-term issue. And that comes to conversations with union partners as well as within New York City public schools to ensure that as we get further into our tenure, we're not looking at the continuation of these kinds of issues.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, I think one thing I want to credit the team on is that there is a willingness to exhaust every option in front of them and an unwillingness to accept something as a longstanding problem and therefore part and parcel of a school year. And so, in the conversations that we've been having, these are conversations about the procurement of additional buses, the conversations about the training of additional drivers, and the conversation about how we ensure that our goal isn't just the vast majority, but it is to meet the needs of every single student.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think it comes back to what I've said before, which is: what is the Democratic Party, if not its voters? And we're seeing that the voters across this country are eager for not only a change but also for a vision of something that we are fighting for. And I've spoken a lot about childcare this morning. I've often couched it as the second driver of the cost-of-living crisis. The first driver is housing. And the little that I do know about this soon-to-be new mayor is that one of the central issues in his race was around rent stabilization and around the importance of delivering on affordability not just as a goal, but as a result, and what we've seen is that his constituents agreed with exactly that. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Holds a Press Conference With Governor Hochul and Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels to Launch 2-K on First Day of School.