Friday, August 29, 2014

Pre-K certification not going well

From Crains:

City Comptroller Scott Stringer said Wednesday that New York City is far behind schedule in submitting contracts with pre-kindergarten providers, which he says raises possible safety problems with some of the sites slated to be used for Mayor Bill de Blasio's signature program.

Mr. Stringer said that only 141 of more than 500 contracts have been submitted to his office even though school starts in just eight days for 50,000 students in the city's significantly expanded pre-K program. He said failure to provide those contracts to his office—which is required to review all city contracts—is preventing his team from doing safety checks.

"It is risky to be launching a program like this without the proper review," said Mr. Stringer in an interview. "Not getting the contracts means we can't do our due diligence."

"We can't sacrifice safety for expediency," he said.

Officials in the comptroller's office said they have found serious safety issues with a few of the vendors whose contracts they have inspected, including one which employed a staffer who had been charged with conspiracy to commit child pornography.

The sites that do not have approved contracts will still open Sept. 4 even if the paperwork has yet to be submitted by then to the comptroller.

8 comments:

georgetheatheist said...

To hell with this pre-K crap. Plunk the kids down in front of reruns of the Howdy Doody Show - they'll learn more.

georgetheatheist said...

Ok, OK a revised, up-do-date Howdy Doody Show with a Hispanic crocodile, an Asian hurdy-gurdy man and an African-American tank engine.

Anonymous said...

And if anything should go wrong where children are harmed in anyway whatsoever, get ready for some hefty lawsuits.

JQ said...

the rush to have this instituted was stupid,the blaz should have dealt with affordable housing first.

We're Queens - We Can't Have Nice Things said...

Every third storefront in crappy effed up Flooshing is advertising money-laundering, Medicaid scam, brothel - uh, pre-K services.

They opened up overnight - I'm sure that their handlers are exactly the kind of people you want taking care of 4-year-olds!

I guess it's all okay as long as mom and dad can keep pumping out more anchor babies and welfare recipients! Gotta save up for those Mercedes!

Chester the Molester said...

Where do I sign up for the job?

Anonymous said...

Mayor Red will be the worst disaster to hit this city since Dinkins

Anonymous said...

Sounds like somebody screwed up big time, or took a skim on faulty materiel. Where does the the responsibility lie?