Stringer Tells Mayor To Rethink Transfer Of Early-Child Duties

City Comptroller Scott Stringer has called on the de Blasio administration to overhaul its plan to shift the management of community-based early-childhood-education providers from the Administration for Children’s Services to the Department of Education by next year.

Early-childhood-center operators were concerned about both the speed and the design of the rollout of the DOE’s “Birth-to-Five Request for Proposals,” a new round of contracts the providers could bid on. Under the plan, funding for the programs would remain the same for five to eight years, which raised concerns because rising rent and food costs weren’t factored in. The coalition also believed that families who needed cultural accommodations or summer, half-day and extended-day programming would get the short end of the stick under the current plan.