Sent to the Corner

The request for proposals for the mayor’s program — free prekindergarten for four-year-olds and free “3K” for three-year-olds — was released last week, with the caveat that it should first go to “areas of the city hardest hit by COVID-19,” according to a letter sent to providers obtained by Mishpacha.

Not a single frum zip code was included; the RFP limited participation to just 33 neighborhoods, none of which feature an Orthodox demographic presence. Of Brooklyn’s 37 zip codes, about half, or 16, qualified. A look at a map of the eligible areas almost appears to show a deliberate carving out of Jewish neighborhoods from eligibility.

I sent an email to City Hall requesting a reason for this omission. Despite ample time given to respond, there was no answer.

The free pre-K, or “universal prekindergarten,” was established by de Blasio in 2014 as his main education policy. The program has been widely praised, and the mayor worked closely with yeshivah administrators to make accommodations that would allow religious schools to join. The 3K program came several years later, and was in the process of being slowly rolled out when Covid hit.