After nearly a year of advocacy, working to ensure that New York City Jewish day schools would be included in Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s signature universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) program, OU Advocacy-Teach NYS has launched a campaign in New York City calling on the mayor to \u201cMake Universal Pre-K Universal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The campaign is targeted to raise awareness among New York City\u2019s Jewish community and the greater public that Mayor de Blasio\u2019s pledge to offer every child in New York City \u201ctruly universal, full-day pre-K\u201d has left New York City\u2019s Jewish day school students out in the cold.<\/p>\n
OU Advocacy-Teach NYS has attempted to work with Mayor de Blasio since the inception of his expanded UPK program in January 2014. Despite the $300 million Mayor de Blasio received from the state for the expansion of New York City\u2019s UPK program and repeated promises from the mayor that the program would accommodate all of the city\u2019s four-year-olds, 89 percent of the Jewish community\u2019s pre-K age children are still unable to participate in UPK.<\/p>\n
This is due to the difficulty Jewish day schools encounter in order to adequately accommodate the 6 hours and 20 minutes of uninterrupted secular instruction required by the mayor\u2019s rules, while still maintaining appropriate levels of privately-funded religious instruction.<\/p>\n