Advocates for the city’s Jewish community are blasting Mayor de Blasio with a series of ads over a prekindergarten policy they say costs Jewish families $50 million a year.
Orthodox Union political director Maury Litwack said few Orthodox Jewish kids are taking advantage of de Blasio’s universal pre-K because its full-day schedule leaves no time for religious instruction.
“Mr. Mayor … MAKE UNIVERSAL PRE-K UNIVERSAL,” say the ads, which kicked off Tuesday in several Jewish and political publications. Litwack would not disclose the size of the ad buy.
The city’s universal pre-K program began in September and exceeded de Blasio’s enrollment goal of more than 53,000 kids across the five boroughs.
But fewer than 1,000 Orthodox Jewish families are taking advantage of the full-day programs, Litwack said, because the six-hour day leaves no time for lessons in religion.
It’s against the city’s rules for parents to sign their kids up for full-day pre-K and then take them out early, Litwack said.
Because of the policy, roughly 5,000 Orthodox families haven’t signed up and spend roughly $10,000 a year to pay for pre-K out of their pockets, according to Litwack.
“The city should help those families by offering more half-day slots,” Litwack said, “so they too can take advantage of the city’s free, universal pre-K.”
“The time has come for our community to become a part of the mayor’s signature program,” said Litwack. “Jewish day school students are being left out.”
Litwack said he met with city officials to discuss the scheduling issue on Dec 2. but has yet to hear back with a solution.
Parents said adding religious study at the end of the day isn’t an option.
“Logistically it doesn’t work,” said Morris Tabush, 35, a tech professional from Brooklyn who plans to enroll his 4-year old son in a private, religious pre-K. “You can’t take a 4- or 5-year-old child and subject them to two different schools a day.”
De Blasio spokesman Wiley Norvell said the city has seen a remarkable increase in the number of Orthodox Jewish families enrolled in city pre-K programs.
Norvell said the city worked closely with Jewish groups in the pre-K rollout and will add more pre-K seats to neighborhoods across the city in 2015.
The city has thousands of half-day seats already, he added.
“This is a single, high-quality system,” said Norvell. “We only select the best providers who meet our standards.”
