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October 13, 2011

In audit, Liu and DOE spar over pre-K funds the city doesn’t use

by Philissa Cramer, at 4:04 pm

The city isn’t sending as many 4-year-olds to pre-kindergarten as it could, according to an audit by Comptroller John Liu.

Liu’s latest Department of Education audit looks at the way the city uses state funding for “universal pre-kindergarten” programs. The funds can be used to pay for half-day pre-K classes at public schools or through city or community-based preschool programs.

Even though many public schools maintain waiting lists for pre-kindergarten classes, especially where space is tight, many 4-year-olds are not enrolled in pre-K classes that could help prepare them for school. Every year, the audit calculates, the city returns an average of about $30 million in unused pre-K funding to the state.

“DOE’s failure to fully allocate all UPK funds means that children who could have received pre-kindergarten classes are not being served,” concludes the audit, which radiates evidence of tension between Liu’s office and the DOE.

The department submitted its response to the audit “under protest” and calling the audit’s focus “deliberately and stubbornly myopic, thereby rendering it of little, if any, worth.” If Liu’s office had looked at efforts to expand pre-K enrollment, the DOE argues, it would have found that the problem lies not with the department but in constricting state regulations.

An enormous challenge, the DOE and Liu’s office agree, is that the state will only pay for two and a half hours of pre-K per day for each child.

The city has long said that it would have no trouble using all of the state’s pre-K funds if only they could be used for full-day programs, which many parents prefer. But some programs offer additional time and services on top of what the state pays for, and Liu’s office concluded that the city does not make an effort to direct the extra pre-K funding to them.

Lobbying the state for permission to use pre-K funding for full-day programs is one of 10 recommendations the audit offers the city. In its response, the DOE accepts nine of the suggestions, arguing that many are already in place and rejecting only the idea that pre-K providers should be required to keep waiting lists of children they cannot accomodate.

The audit finds that the DOE hasn’t fully assessed public demand for pre-K programs or recruited new providers to offer programs where demand exceeds the number of available seats. Plus, the audit finds, the city doesn’t know which pre-K providers do the best job.

Assessing and rewarding quality is part of the city’s EarlyLearn initiative, a reauthorization process for early childhood programs that has just gotten underway.

The full audit is below, followed by the city’s response.

Audit of UPK

Audit of UPK, Response

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  • I noticed that…

    ““DOE’s failure to fully allocate all UPK funds means that children who could have received pre-kindergarten classes are not being served,” concludes the audit, which radiates evidence of tension between Liu’s office and the DOE.”

    When has the DoE ever done something that will benefit the children of NYC?

  • brooklynteacher1

    My school lost a second Pre-K class last year with a waiting list of enough children to keep the class open.  This year we had 50 children on a waiting list and the DOE refused to open the second class, even though they tell us the school is underutilized.

  • Michael Smith

    The funds are only allowed to be used for half-day seats. Every year THOUSANDS of half-day pre-K seats go unclaimed because they are impractical for working parents and not especially great for 4-year-olds even when a parent is at home and can deal with the limited hours. I know people who have pulled their kids out of half-day pre-K because the time was so short that the kids weren’t really getting anything out of the experience. Even if they didn’t want their kids in full-time preschool, these parents preferred 2-3 full days rather than five half days. Meanwhile, there are ridiculous waitlists for full-day seats and for almost any
    decent school, you basically have no chance of getting a full-day seat
    unless you have an  older child already enrolled at the school (because
    siblings get preference for seats).

    So with all those half-day seats already unclaimed it doesn’t make sense to add more half-day seats into the system. What would make sense is for the STATE to allow the DOE to combine funds for two half-day seats into a single full-day seat, because that’s what parents want and need, and because that is what would most benefit kids — especially those from under-served communities who could really benefit from a deep and enriching early childhood ed experience.

    The funny thing is, this is one of the very few issues where all the stakeholders (UFT, CSA, DOE, parents, councilmembers, advocates) are all on the same side. Yet even after years of collective lobbying toward the same goal, the state refuses to adopt the common sense solution. This one is not the fault of the NYC DOE or even the NY State Department of Education. It is the fault of legislators in Albany who refuse to do what’s right. It’s quite obvious that they like being able to say that they fully fund universal pre-K while knowing that tens of millions of dollars will inevitably be returned to the state. And, by the way, John Liu knows all of that.

  • Michael Smith

    Was the waitlist for half-day seats or full-day seats? If it’s for full-day, which is likely the case, these funds could not be used to support the additional class.  The state has been totally intransigent on this issue.

  • Heard this story before

    Sounds like the DOE may be making room in your school for a charter.

  • http://twitter.com/MaryConwaySpieg Mary Conway-Spiegel

    City-wide parents have been begging for full day free Pre-K.  Whether it’s the City or the State creating the bottle neck is irrelevant, its just plain irresponsible.  This is an example of the beginning of what could be “wrap around” services and/or higher test scores.
    Its at this juncture in a child’s development when money should be spent, instead of later when local community schools are closed, lotteries for charters are in place and children are already struggling scholastically.

    Band-Aid “reform” and too-late-interventions don’t make up for the precious time that’s stolen (by those responsible for denying Pre-K) from these families, children and communities hungry for early child hood education.

  • Michael M. (parent still)

    Related… note that when schools give up PreK rooms under pressure to take in additional K sections, that propagates over time.  End result isn’t just one K class of 25 or so — it’s a cohort of 150 or so. 

    Further, DOE stats on school utilization are gradually morphing internally and below the radar over time due to the above.  This MASKS increases in “true” K-5 enrollment and utilization.

  • il flerpolo

    “Whether it’s the City or the State creating the bottle neck is irrelevant, its just plain irresponsible.”

    Knowing which entity is responsible for a problem is irrelevant?  That’s great analysis.  Why not just abandon all pretense and blame all problems relating to NYC schools on “society”?  

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