When Bill de Blasio ran for mayor of New York City in 2013, his platform included a proposal to offer free pre-kindergarten to all 4-year-olds. Now that he’s accomplished that mission, he’s looking at the next step—providing the same publicly-funded pre-kindergarten to 3-year-olds!
The new plan, titled “3-K for All,” will be rolled out first in two school districts—District 7 in the Bronx and District 23 in Brooklyn—beginning September 2017 with a goal to have all interested 3-year-olds in those districts enrolled within the year. According to The New York Times, that would triple the number of children currently enrolled in those two districts. The program will then expand to six more districts by 2020 and hopes to offer universal pre-K access to all 3-year-olds by 2021.
While the jury is still out on whether these steps will have a positive impact on performance, test scores and graduation rates down the road, there’s little question that introducing children to a good education earlier in life will reap more benefits than if they wait until they're older. And since he’s already on the subject of free schooling, hopefully Mayor de Blasio pushes for another proposal from each borough’s president: offering universal free school lunches in every NYC public school by 2018. Then NYC’s children would really be propped up for a head start!