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Transcript: Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Fariña Announce Expansion of 3-K For All

October 13, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Ken, I want to thank you so much. And you’ve just spoken on behalf of parents all over this city because the reality is if it weren’t for free Pre-K for All, so many parents would have the choice that you just spoke about. Yes, their child could be home but they wouldn’t have the chance to learn in the same way or if a parent wanted to find a preschool that would give their child that ability to start learning and growing, they have to pay a lot of money for it.

A typical preschool in this city is $10,000 to $15,000 and a vast majority of New York families can’t afford that or if they make that choice that means they’re going to have to give up on a lot of other things.

The whole idea was to help reach our kids at the moment when they were able to grow intellectually the most and give them that strong foundation, but also lift a burden on parents. Parents are struggling in this city. I always say, this is a tough city to be a parent in. It really is. There’s so much going on. People work so hard, they work such long hours. And for parents in this town, they needed a break, and to get pre-K for free and now 3-K is going to be a game changer for so many families.

You know, upstairs we visited that Mommy and Me classroom, and the mothers were speaking about what it was like to just have a break, to just have a chance to have professionals work with their kids and help them grow while the mothers got a little bit of a break during the day. That’s a huge thing to begin with. That’s another one of the great virtues of 3-K and pre-K – it’s giving parents time to do the other things that they have to do in life including in so many cases, finding work.

So, there’s a lot of reasons why this makes sense for the families of today. And Ken, I’m so happy to hear that Kendall is doing so well and that is something that’s really making an impact on your family.

I think you’re right – we’re going to reach a lot more families, a lot more deeply now as we go into 3-K.

I also have to say that those kids you saw singing, first of all, we have the new pre-K theme song now. I want to thank Pre-K Class 5 for bringing this to public attention. But I love their energy and I love their joy, and how much being in school together meant to them.

In fact, even upstairs, what the parents were saying is the three-year-olds in that classroom wanted to be like their older siblings. They wanted to put on the school uniform and go to school. They wanted to feel like they were grown-ups. We really have to see how much kids are ready to learn and how exciting it is for them to go to school and to have that chance to be a part of something that they think means they’re growing up, they’re becoming big kids. It’s exciting for them.

But you saw the excitement of these young children when they were singing. It was really beautiful. So, this school, I just want to say, is showing us immediately what the future is going to look like in this city. And I want to commend the Principal of Queens Explorers, Melissa Compson, for her good work. Congratulations to you and your whole team.

[Applause]

I want to thank my colleagues in City government who have done so much of the work to create 3-K for All and to build up our early childhood education capacity. Our Deputy Chancellor Josh Wallack from the DOE and Deputy Commissioner for ACS Lorelei Vargas. Let’s give them a big round of applause.

[Applause]

And a special warm thank you for these good people behind me – just stand up a minute so people can see your shirts. These are the coolest shirts in New York City, by the way, and they mean an elite group that goes out and they go out wherever parents are. They’ve been doing this the last few years. They go all over the city. They knock on doors. They go to schools. They go to street fairs. They go to barber shops. They go to barber salons – wherever parents are and tell them about what pre-K means for their child, and they sign them up, and they help them find the right location for their child.

And now, they’re going to do the same thing with 3-K. These are the folks who are bringing this idea to life. Let’s give them a big round of applause.

[Applause]

And you’re very fashionable. Thank you, everyone.

So, look, I’ll be quick because I want you to hear from my colleagues but this is an important day because we are announcing the next step in 3-K for All. We know pre-K worked. 

A lot of folks said it couldn’t be done, it couldn’t be done that quickly, it couldn’t reach every child. Guess what? It all happened. It worked. Almost 70,000 kids getting full-day, pre-K. Quality levels have been high. Parents have loved it. Parent satisfaction levels have been outstanding. It’s there. It’s available. It’s free.

There’s an incredible effort to make sure parents get the right match. Pre-K has worked, 3-K is the next wave. We’ve started it already. And I say to people, I walked into a classroom in Central Brooklyn on the first day of school in the early afternoon and I saw history being made.

I saw three-year-olds in a New York City classroom, learning, and playing, and growing, and enjoying, and their teachers were so thrilled to know they were reaching these kids at the point that would have the biggest impact. This is what I have to emphasize.

Our education system all over the country had it backwards for too long. We left out the zero to five timeframe when kids can learn best. All of the emphasis was on later. So many kids in this city, in this country didn’t get to school even at kindergarten they didn’t get there. All sorts of places only still have half-day kindergarten.

That zero to five window where the most brain development happens, where you have the greatest chance to give a kid a strong start, it was ignored for decades. We’re now flipping the script. 

We are recognizing we have to reach kids younger and more deeply if we’re going to be able to give them the foundation they needs particularly for the demands of the modern world.

So, we see it with pre-K, now we have to do it with 3-K. It has already begun in Central Brooklyn and the South Bronx. We know it works already. We’re seeing it already. Parents are experiencing it already and they’re thrilled that their kids are getting this opportunity.

Now, we have to go the next step and we have to make sure that 3-K reaches all our kids. So, we’re going to continue to deepen 3-K, and I’m pleased to announce today that we are expanding 3-K to six more school districts in New York City in all five boroughs.

It’s a big step forward for New York City.

[Applause]

So, starting next school year, September of 2018, we will be expanding to District 27 right here – we’re pleased to be here in this community in Queens – and District 4 which is East Harlem in Manhattan.

The year after in September, 2019, we will be launching 3-K in District 9 in the Bronx and District 31 which encompasses all of Staten Island.

The following fall, in September 2020, we will launch 3-K in District 19 in East New York, Brooklyn and District 29 in Southeast Queens.

The following fall is when we go universal. So, we are announcing today what the next three falls will bring. We will have eight districts total that will be reached by September 2020. We will have, by that point, shown that this model can work everywhere.

And then we’ll be ready to take the next big jump – that same progression that we went through with pre-K, building it up faster and faster. We’re now going to do it with 3-K.

Now, I have to tell you this will take a lot of work. This one is in some ways even harder than what we did with pre-K and is certainly in many ways even higher impact because it’s never been done.

You know, we had some pre-K in the past. When I took office, there was about 20,000 kids in full-day pre-K. We brought it up to about 70,000. But here there’s never been kids at the three-year-old level in New York City public schools.

This is a whole new world we’re entering into. So, it’s going to be harder because we’re building something brand new. It’s going to be harder because we already know from our experiences with pre-K space is a real issue. And in some districts, where we have more space and some where we have less, and that’s part of what is going to be crucial over these next four years to build out the space in time for the full expansion. 

It will take a lot of work but this is worth it. Out of everything that I have seen in public service, nothing has as much impact as early childhood education on the whole society, on the kids, on the parents, on the families, on the whole society.

This is the ultimate game changer. So, it is worth the challenge. It’s going to take hard work but it’s going to be worth it, and it’s for me is and always has been my number-one priority to make sure that our parents can live a better life, that our children can a better opportunity. This is how you address our kid’s educational needs but it’s also how you address income inequality in the here and now. 

Take a burden off families right now. Right now.

I want to give you an easy example. A family with two kids who go to both 3-K and pre-K, and save – so the average, again, about $12,000 a year per child per year – that family with two kids taking advantage of 3-K and pre-K saves almost $50,000.

I bet a lot of people in this room could think of really good and important things to do with $50,000. Yes? Right?

So, families will have an incredible opportunity to have the resources they’ve been struggling to have for other important things in their lives. And then the other way it affects all of us, and creates a more fair society down the line – those kid with that strong foundation will do better in school over all the years ahead. They will get a better education. They will be better prepared for their future. They will be better prepared to enter the workforce because we reached them at the beginning and we reached them the right way.

So, that’s going to affect their economic chances going forward and giving them a real boost, a real lift, and that’s why this is so important and it affects every part of the family’s life if we reach the child early enough.

And I’ll conclude, before I turn to the Chancellor and I’ll say a few quick words in Spanish – conclude with a simple point. Here’s what we believe in, in this city – that educational opportunity should not be based on ZIP code. Everyone deserves a good education. Every child deserves opportunity in every part of the city. It used to be, whether we’re talking about early childhood education or we were talking about AP classes, your chances were much better if you lived in a wealthier district.

We are steadily changing that. We want a child who comes from a less advantaged background to have just as great a start as a kid who comes from privilege. We want a child who at the beginning of their time in school is told they have a chance to go to college too.

We want a child in high school to see those AP classes are there for them regardless of what high school they go to, regardless of what neighborhood they live in. That will change this city fundamentally when we reach that day that every child knows they have as much opportunity as the next child.

Before I turn to the Chancellor, just a few words in Spanish –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, I want to turn to the Chancellor, and congratulate her for all the progress that has been made in the school system, and a special congratulations for the wonderful news about the AP classes. I know that’s been a labor of love for you.

Our Chancellor, Carmen Fariña.

[Applause]

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña: It’s really a pleasure to be here for this announcement. And if you think parents are happy, you need to see the smiles on the superintendent's sitting in front of me.

This is something that we know is a game changer. And I want to be clear that there were things that we saw this morning that I just want to point out explicitly. First and foremost, the adult leading the group was the parent coordinator. So, guys, you can get way ahead of your time and start doing some of this in your own schools now. Parent coordinator puts out a flier telling parents in the building that there will be this program, Mommy and Me – Mommy, Daddy, and Me. Actually Caretakers and Me because caretakers covers grandparents as well. You can’t leave grandparents out of these this, right.

Mayor: Right, stand up for the grandparents.

Chancellor Fariña: Absolutely. And it offers an opportunity for them to come to school with these children and spend a couple of hours a week – this is not a full-time program, the Mommy and Daddy, but the three-year-olds will be. But what was happening in that room today was very clear to me. First and foremost, these kids had all the photographers in the room, had all of us in the room, and they ignored us totally. Totally. It was like we weren’t there.

And that to me is the first step in getting adjusted to school. Sometimes it takes some children – and I totally agree with the Mayor – you know, many of our kids were not starting school until they were five or six and that meant they came in already scared because they were used to being home and being coddled and being overly taken care.

These kids are already getting used to being independent, to be social beings. There was a lot of parallel play in there – kids backs to each other but they were playing meaningful, learning how to use [inaudible] doing the kind of work that three-year-olds and two-year-olds – there were two-year-olds in the room [inaudible].

So, to me, having a parent coordinator have two year’s head start on getting to know the parents in the building is a win-win. So that’s a real biggie.

The other thing is most of the parents in the room that we were in this morning come from another country and speak another language. And for many of them, their children are being exposed to English a year or two earlier then they might have if they had to wait that long to get to school without the parents losing the ability to speak their native language at home because I think two languages is a blessing and this is a way to have everything.

This also means, when you’re a parent – and I’m going back to those days – you feel very isolated. I don’t know how many of you remember the days when you had no adult to talk to. Remember this? And when you had a bad day or your child did something, I’d pick up the phone and call my mother – “I don’t understand, she’s got spots all over her face. What do I do?”

And these are parents who now can form a parenting group. They can sit in the back of the room and talk to each other – “What do I do when my older child is jealous of the younger child?” What are some of the conversations they can have that help support a family. So, that’s present in there also.

The children are getting vocabulary. I understand this week is Chicken Week, or Chicks Week. They’re going to learn about chickens and eggs. It seems to be a big thing in the city this year – chickens and eggs and farm life.

But that’s not the kind of vocabulary you’d be having in your home if your child was watching TV. The same thing that next week they’re having service dogs – they’re having whole conversations on service dogs. The service dog is coming to school to meet with the children.

But they’re talking about that vocabulary in these small groups which to me is a plus-plus.

I think also social-emotional needs are being met, and again, it’s a short time during the week but they’re being met in a way that parents are also learning how to handle this when they go home.

So, if it was up to me, I would put a Caretaker and Me program in every school that has space. Put a parent coordinator in charge but the three-year-olds that are coming to our school next year and this year already – there’s a major difference from pre-K. Number-one, there’s 15 children in a class versus 18 because we know that age-appropriateness is important. They require more care.

There is provisions for students who come at three years old – thank you for reminding me – that are not potty-trained because everybody gets there at a different age. And we factored that into our thinking. And all the teachers who work with the three-year-olds are going to have specific training because a three-year-old and five-year-old are two different beings.  They’re not just early childhood, they’re very different type of kids. So, we think we’re really in the right place. I’ve always said that starting college-bound students in tenth grade was way, way too late. We need to start having conversations with our kids, making them feel comfortable and confident about themselves. 

You saw those pre-K kids sing and dance [inaudible] they weren’t upset. They weren’t nervous. The poise that they have and the self-confidence is one of the biggest skills we need for the workforce of tomorrow.

So, I’m thrilled to be here today. I know the superintendents are thrilled. It was one of the hardest secrets for me to keep about where we were going to move the program because I was dying to shout it from the rooftops –

Mayor: You showed restraint.

[Laughter]

Chancellor Fariña: I did. But I’m also thrilled we’re here in District 27 today because I really feel that there are elements of District 27 that need a lot of support. I’ve been talking about the Rockaways for the last year nonstop. And I really believe giving this community this service is going to be a game changer.

Mayor: Amen. Thank you, Chancellor.

[Applause]

As I turn to Deputy Mayor Buery, I want to give him some special credit. He led the conversation about early childhood education from the beginning of the administration, and the original vision, of course, was pre-K. And we weren’t sure when we started, could we keep to the timeline we set? Could we reach as far as we hoped to?

We didn’t know until we actually went down the road. But as pre-K consolidated, it was Richard Buery who started to say we need to think about the ways we can go farther. And his work really led us to today. Deputy Mayor Richard Buery.

[Applause]

Deputy Mayor Richard Buery: Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. I just want to say first of all, that was the most adorable thing I’ve seen in my [inaudible]. So, if we could get the kids out –

Mayor: Yeah, right.

Deputy Mayor Buery: An encore. I really want to thank the Mayor and the Chancellor for their leadership in bringing this to fruition. I – you know, I remember, most of children did preschool starting at three years old, full-day programs. I remember one of the hardest decisions you can make, where to send your children. For my wife and I it was critical, first and foremost, from a childcare perspective because we both worked and we needed somewhere for our kids to be.

But also it was critical because we knew that in preschool children can begin to develop those social skills, the emotional skills, the pre-literacy and numeracy skills, the fine and gross motor skills, all those things that the Chancellor was talking about that help young people to develop and succeed and grow in early childhood.

And I’m so lucky that my family and I had the financial means to do that for our children at that age. And ultimately, we know that nationwide families with means are more likely to enroll their children in programs for three- and four-year-olds for the obvious reasons.

And we know that those differential investments are one of the biggest drivers of the achievement gap. And so ultimately, today, the announcement that the Mayor and the Chancellor are making and the investment we’re making is really about the long-term well-being of our city because it means that those children have a head start in their development and their education. And for all the benefits that we talk about that you get from a full-day pre-Kindergarten program, the research is equally clear that two years of pre-K have a tremendously greater impact on the well-being of children.

So, we’re really excited and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow our system into making sure that we continue to build excellence and equity for all the children of New York City. Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you very, very much.

[Applause]

Now an expert on early childhood education and she handled it with two kids at once, so she really knows what the challenge that parents face are, and thank you for all your support on everything we’re doing in early childhood education. Borough President Melinda Katz –

[Applause]

[...]

Now, pre-K worked in large measure because we had great support in the State legislature and we’re going to depend on that support going forward. And it really – people stood up and said this is something that our children deserved and they got it done. And one of the strong voices for pre-K who helped us get it in the first place and is going to help us going forward, State Senator James Sanders.

[Applause]

[...]

Many – thank you, Senator. Senator, many people questions the sanity of the title, 3-K, but some thought it was a very moving title so, thank you for noting that.

Finally, wanted you to hear from a member of the City Council who has been really in the forefront with us on so much of what this administration has done. And everything we have done to change our schools has been a collaborative effort with the City Council both on the big picture on the policy but also on the work in every district. And I know the Councilman feels it because he’s a public servant but I know he’s also an expert on early childhood education in his life. Council Member Donovan Richards.

[Applause]

[...]

The conclusion I take from that story is that the Councilman needs to work on his debating skills.

[Laughter]

Mayor: Okay. We are going to take questions on this announcement and obviously any other education topics and then we will take questions on other matters. Anything on this announcement or on education. Go ahead.

Question: Can you just clarify – I know there was a question of needing $700 million to make this not universal in the sense that it’s just for high need districts but truly universal. I know we are not quite in budget season in Albany yet but if you could give an update on the work going into that. And also if you could just speak a little bit about – obviously UPK was always going to be universal – 3-K is directed to high-need districts. There is two ideologies in the world of early childhood education about where resources should be committed – if you could just talk about why you decided to focus on low, higher need districts while UPK focuses on everyone.

Mayor: So I think that’s, I appreciate the question but I think there is a misunderstanding of some of what we are trying to do here so I want to restate and my colleagues will obviously jump in. 3-K will be universal. It is the exact same theory that governed pre-K. We believe it should be for every child of every background of every income level. We believe it’s important for the city that everyone get the same start. We think – and I’ve talked to parents, I always say this – it doesn’t matter if I talk to a parent of lower income or a parent that who is middle class or upper middle class, the enthusiasm around pre-K is exactly the same. What it is doing for their child, what it allows them to do with their time and their schedule – the fact that they are saving a huge amount of money. Everyone feels that and everyone that I’ve talked to understands that it is good every child to get a strong start. So that’s where we are going on 3-K. 

The reason 3-K is not being launched on the same two-year time frame was we did not have the infrastructure to do it. I mentioned with pre-K we had 20,000 kids in full-day pre-K, we had a history of pre-K  in our public schools, it was still a race to the finish over those two years to get it all up and running in time. But we had a lot more foundation to work with. This one is going to take a lot more work and needs a more purposeful build out. And yes, we have to put together the resources.

We chose districts for a variety of reasons so to say it’s simply high needs districts, I think is missing the totality of what we are doing. We wanted all boroughs to be represented – so obviously all of Staten Island will be getting 3-K for an example. We wanted to make sure there was space. So, a key issue in the decision around the districts was which districts had the most space available now because we know space is going to be one of the biggest challenges with 3-K – even more as I said than pre-K. And we looked at other factors in terms of the districts needs and what was happening with their programing and where we thought it would have the biggest impact. But, this timeline we are on is a very aggressive timeline – four years to go from something that did not exist anywhere in New York City public schools to something that will be universal is a very aggressive timeline.

The money for these eight districts total – the two already and the six new – will come exclusively from the City budget. That is the plan. When we top out with the eight districts fully operational, that will be somewhere in the neighborhood $180 million. And that is already being planned in our budget process. The additional resources will be necessary to reach the other 24 districts. And that’s where we will be obviously putting a lot of time and energy into that over the coming years but we don’t need that right away. Because we are accounting for this growth pattern going up to eight districts in our own budget process.

Question: [Inaudible] believe the issue of space. Districts 24 and 30 here in Queens, they are the most overcrowded in the city. Your plan for pre-K includes building a space – center on Park which violates, could violate other rules. What is your plan for opening up 3-K and adding even more students to districts that are already at 150 percent compactly?

Mayor: So, first of all and again I’ll keep answering questions and my colleagues will jump in as they see things they want to add. We didn’t violate any rule in the way we handled that space. That is based on law and we had to take action to get the legal right to do that and people can talk about the specifics of that. But it was done in the clear light of day and there were other factors added to address the facts that we needed that space. But, so first, that is part of why we are choosing districts where we do have space as the beginning for 3-K.

Second we need this to be universal – the answer we have more of a timeline here which helps, so the answer is to use the tools that we found work – to maximize the creation of early childhood centers which can serve a number of schools in an area and also to include public school development in other development that is happening. And you see that more and more around the city where housing is developed and the first few stories are a school for an example. There is so much development happening including in some of the most overcrowded districts – that’s something that we now are really leaning into. And we are able to put serious resources into that which make it appealing to folks who are doing development. Does anyone want to add to that?

Question: [Inaudible] according to the pre-K center you plan to build behind the Hall of Science –
Mayor: Right.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Yes.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Right, I’m still saying, anytime we build something, if there is a legal issue we have to address the legal issue and we have to compensate accordingly. Go ahead.

Queens Borough President Melina Katz: So in response to the issue of the Hall of Science – it’s about 300 seats that are being scheduled to go on the Hall of Science parking lot. That Alienation Bill has been passed up in Albany – it was due to be sent over to the Governor if I’m not mistaken today or yesterday or tomorrow around now. So it did go through the alienation that was necessary – you know that was one of my biggest concerns at the time that the law was followed. And I just want to add one more thing if I can. You know, I was extremely concerned about 3-K coming into the public school system when I heard about it. And I will tell you that the comfort level that I have found on the fact that it is going to have a process, that it will take a few years in order to go to the entire city of New York – that it started with pilot districts. I think that shows an enormous amount of thought that went into this process. Queens is the most overcrowded.

And we have spent an enormous amount of time and energy with the Department of Education with Richard Buery, with Josh Wallack. Going through spaces that could be used for Pre-K other than public schools like churches, synagogues, civic associations, youth centers. So I think that is an important dynamic to understand. Which is right 4-K was already in place. Queens was overcrowded already but the fact that a lot of the non-for-profits have taken in the Universal Pre-K has been extremely helpful. And the fact this is going to be balanced over a few years will give at least the borough from my perspective, but the city and opportunity to accommodate. I think for those new people.

Deputy Mayor Buery: I just want to add to that, while we are on the topic. I just want to thank the borough president in particular; Borough President Katz and many of your colleagues around the city who have been a critical partner with us in resolving these issues, particularly with how we engage non-public school spaces. A big part of this puzzle is not only public schools but community partners, community-based organizations. They are a big of the Pre-K for four-year-old program and they will similarly be a part of the 3-K program so there’s another way we engage space and folks like President Katz have been very helpful, not only managing the legal issues surrounding a particular cases like the Hall of Science but going around us in the neighborhoods and saying here’s a non-profit or here is a church or synagogue or another institution that might be able to host and really brokering those partnerships. So that’s one of the ways in which our other partners in government have been extraordinarily helpful

Mayor: Thank you. Go ahead.

Question: On the money, I still don’t understand this $180 million. Can you be more expansive? Is that a startup cost for these eight districts which includes all sorts of construction? What is the ongoing cost? And talk about where you are going to get the money for the full universal program.

Mayor: Sure. This is the expense budget cost – that estimates about $180 million. It does not include capital costs but again these are districts where overwhelmingly we do have space available right now. And Josh Wallack, our Deputy Chancellor can speak to the details of that but this is about the day to day operating costs for 3-K for all in those eight districts. On the additional money, the initial estimate is $700 million to reach the rest of the city. That is something we are going to have to work for with federal and state funding. Now that money will not be ultimately needed until 2021.

So I want to remind everyone that the world can change a lot between now and 2021. There are a series of elections, 2018 and 2020. That could change the complexions of the governments in Albany and in Washington. But, even with the existing alignment that we have in Albany, we got the funding for pre-K because there was a massive popular demand for it. There is no question in my mind. It was front and center in everything I talked about in 2013. Going into 2014 there was tremendous momentum and energy among parents in particular demanding it. I think that same dynamic will play out in Albany for sure going forward. But the money will not be needed until we get to that point.

Question: [Inaudible]
Mayor: Per year, per year. It ramps up. Go ahead.

Deputy Chancellor for Early Childhood Education and Student Enrollment Josh Wallack: Sorry. So yes that is an annual number. And what we did –

Mayor: When it get to eight districts.

Deputy Chancellor Wallack: Yes that’s correct. And what we did to get to that number, so that’s the annual operating cost for those eight districts to serve the number of three-year-olds that we anticipate will take advantage of that and the number of three-year-olds in those districts. And the way we arrived at that number is by looking back at our experience with pre-K for four-year-olds. And looking at the cost of operating those programs in district schools and in partnership with our community based organizations and then applying that to the three-year-olds that we see in those districts. So we believe we have a very accurate cost model.

Mayor: And this year is $36 million. Is that right?

Deputy Chancellor Wallack: That’s right.

Mayor: Right so for the two districts operational now its $36 million.

Question: [Inaudible] 100 or so.
Mayor: No it goes up to approximately $180 when you have all eight online. So just, you know its basic progression. So it’s $36 million right now for two districts – they will build out a little bit more, those two districts, in the next school year. When we get all eight districts fully operational – the annual expense budget cost to the city will be $180 million. Please.

New York State Senator James Sanders: Mr. Mayor. I can attest that without your efforts we would not have Universal Pre-K. I can attest from Albany that you made – you made it the issue of the day. That this was the issue was on everyone’s tongue. Whether they were for it or against it they had to speak of it. What this also does is create a type of people who want the program. That once one district understands how good it is, they are going to call their representatives and say excuse me, we are as good as, if not better than and therefore we want it in our district also. And you let these thousands of people call their elected officials and I assure you that, up in Albany, we too will see the light. And I suspect the city will do well.

Mayor: I like you message of optimism.

Chancellor Fariña: And this is more than just a New York City effort. I received this year alone, requests from all over the country of whether we would come. I don’t even want to know – Josh and Richard, how many places you’ve gone. But superintendents have called – can we talk about how we got this done. I just went to speak at a convention in Saratoga and this was the question that every superintendent was asking me – how did you get that done, we need it in our community.

And I can’t say enough about this being an investment. It is an investment because for many of our parents, the gap starts out of the womb. Exactly right. And we need to stop the gap sooner so it doesn’t get wider later. And this to me, is like, again a no brainer. And I also think the Mayor is underestimating what it cost for childcare. I will tell, on some personal experience with my grandchildren, it was closer to $25,000 a year for childcare. So if we are able to do that in a setting where the kids are being instructed, where their parents are being supported, where people can go back to work and raise the economic part of their family. It is a win-win. 

So I think this is a pilot – I mean, one of the other reasons I’m thrilled we are starting it slower is that one of the things we want to make sure is that we have the right teachers. Not all teachers can work with three-year-olds. And being able to retrain teachers – and also getting universities in board, there are so many layers to this. We had to convince universities to go back to training early childhood teachers which many of them had stopped doing for many years because there was no market for it. So this is a multi-layered approach.

It requires a tremendous amount of heavy lifting but just from the results we are seeing in the first two districts and I, like I said, I can’t tell you how thrilled I am about the districts we are working with this year – because the need is not always economic. There are all kinds of needs and in certain parts of the city are kids in temporary housing and they need this more than other kids, or kids in communities that were ravaged by Sandy who need now to say we respect you. So there are a lot of reasons for what we are doing and where we are doing it and you know again, if we make this work and it’s a pilot not only will New York State want to fund it but the whole United States will see this as a God given right. 

Mayor: Amen.

Yes?

Question: [Inaudible] right now this is all City money but you’re saying in 2021 you’ll need federal and State money?

Mayor: Federal or State, or it could be a combination obviously, but yes.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Everything up through 2020 we can handle with City resources per our budget projections. So that will get us through eight districts, now remember there’s 32 school districts in New York City and the amazing thing is any one of our 32 school districts is the size of the whole district in a lot of cities in America right, we have a huge, huge system. We will get to a quarter of our districts under our own steam with our own resources by September 2020.

To take that last big jump, and it is a big jump, all that preparation you just heard about, getting the space ready, getting the teaching corps ready, everything it’s going to take, it’s going to be its own Marshall Plan to make this happen, it’s going to take a lot, a lot of work. We will need the additional resources. But we believe, one – I’m strongly betting that you will see some changes up ahead in the federal government and in Albany, but two – to the point Senator Sanders made the demand level is going to go through the roof. Parents are already talking about when will they get 3-K, parents are planning on the day when these kinds of things are going to be available. That demand is going to be felt particularly sharply in Albany.

Let me just get anyone who hasn’t gone. 

Question: Just, Mr. Mayor, I’m wondering whether or not you can tell us what the raw numbers are of kids you’ll serve in the first phase verses the end. What do you spend –

Mayor: Let me have Deputy Chancellor Wallack speak to that.

Deputy Chancellor Wallack: So, this year in the two new districts that we added we’re serving about 1,500 kids total. By the time we finish with these eight districts we’ll be serving about 15,000 three-year-olds all told. 

Mayor: Right, so the total when we get absolutely universal, you know, pre-K is up close to 70,000. We think 3-K will be somewhat less just because some parents are not going to be ready to have their kids in a school setting earlier, although what you heard from Donovan and what you saw up there in the Mommy and Me classroom suggest there’s going to be plenty of parents who are ready. So we think 60,000 or maybe a little more –

Deputy Chancellor Wallack: That’s right.

Mayor:  – is going to be top out number when we get it all done.  Did you have a follow up?

Question: Sure. Not on the numbers but I’m just wondering whether the Chancellor thinks that maybe this early socialization will help ameliorate the bullying problem later on.

Chancellor Fariña: I can’t see why not, I mean I don’t have statists yet but if you just saw the group this morning they were resolving their issues about who was going to share a particular Lego. And it is where it starts, I mean we – there’s a famous poem that says, “Everything I learned about life I learned in kindergarten.” So now we can say everything we learned about life we learned as three-year-olds. And I do think it’s really, really important to start socialization skills consciously younger and younger. And I think you can’t do that in isolation. You can’t do it if you’re at home watching a TV. So yes I do think so, and we will certainly be – when in our pilot we’re looking at that as one of the consequences in terms of behavior.

Mayor: And I just want to follow on that. Look there’s another crucial tie in here, there’s the bullying piece and I agree entirely with the Chancellor, I think the more kids are taught to work together and obviously to be around different kinds of kids the better chance we have going forward that they will keep that positive spirit. There’s also the mental health question. We are training all of our pre-K professionals and 3-K professionals to be aware of signs of mental health issues, to be able to engage mental health professionals, to reach kids early, to work with parents early. The whole history of mental health in this city, in this country is untreated problems that were ignored, that were visible in so many cases in youth that had they been addressed in youth the outcomes and lives would have been entirely different. So, we’re going to be seeing kids early now and we’re going to have the training and capacity to address an issue if it comes up. And I think that’s going to affect some of what you see later on for sure.

Yes, way back.

Chancellor Fariña: And I just want to add that one of the things that we’ve been able to do early identification now with four-year-olds, and we’re doing it to the two districts now with three-year-olds is kids with special needs. If you can start thinking about a child who has a speech issue, and I know that’s a particular concern to some of our superintendents, and get the intervention strategies younger, our rate of success is going to be much higher. So if a child needs speech, if they need OT, if they need other kinds of special services for IEPs we think the younger we get started with the child the more likely we’ll be successful. So this has a whole range of benefits.

Mayor: Amen. Way back.

Question: We’ve talked about this before Mr. Mayor about the possibility of an influx of families from Puerto Rico. I was just wondering – this number, the seats, you’re taking that into consideration. I know we’re getting ahead of ourselves but there’s a lot of talk –

Mayor: Sure.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Yeah, I’ll just speak broadly and then the Chancellor or anyone else who wants to add. Look, we’re fully prepared, I’m not going to be surprised if we see a number of families come up and join our school system. Look, this school system has a lot of capacity, a lot of strength to say the least and we would be ready to handle any additional families who come up. That’s the bottom line. We’re going to work on ways to help families through the transition if they’re coming in in the middle of the school year. But let’s face it, this school system for generations has been open to all. Whoever shows up we have a mandate to serve and we’ll be able to do that with children coming up from Puerto Rico as well.

Chancellor Fariña: We have put together already special protocols, we sent a letter home to every single principal, we’ve asked principals to send letters home in communities where we think there will be influx. Our anticipation is we have some people in Puerto Rico now investigating some of the issues that we think will come up. We don’t expect a big influx until after Thanksgiving because there’s still not regularly scheduled flights in and out. We are also asking principals to let us know ahead of time, and our enrollment offices already prepared, where do you have space and then in places where it may cause more overcrowding is there another place that might be nearby. The other thing, and this was a big ah-ha for principals, if certain schools get more than what we anticipated through the October 31st closing of registers, money will be allotted to those schools to be able to service those children. And understanding that in many cases there may be extra support needed for families and you know, trauma and whatever else they’re coming with. So we’re prepared, we just don’t have a real good estimation of how many might be coming. 

Mayor: And let me just add before your follow up, and this is a moral obligation. This is a moral obligation for the City of New York to help the people of Puerto Rico in their hour of need. These children, if they don’t get to a school that can be there for them they’re not going to get a year of education. I mean think about what that means, these are fellow Americans and we as New Yorkers feel a particular bond with the Puerto Rican people. We’re not going to see a generation of Puerto Rican children miss their education. So, whatever we can do to help we’ll be ready to do.

Go ahead, your follow up.

Question: [Question in Spanish]

Chancellor Fariña: [Chancellor Fariña speaks in Spanish]

Mayor: Marcia.

Question: [Inaudible] get some more details, Chancellor, about what you’re hearing on the ground from the people you have in Puerto Rico. What districts you think the kids might be coming into and what specific programs you’re trying to come up with the deal with people who may not have English as a special language.

Chancellor Fariña: Well I think certainly, as I spoke to the superintendents, that if they have inkling, because many – I was at a town hall meeting last night and you know, one of the principals said we’re already hearing from our community that their cousins are coming. So we need to do that kind of a survey and that’s number one. What we don’t really have a good handle on is when they’ll be coming. So also will these parents – will these be kids who then need bilingual programs, are these kids who are going to want dual-language programs, are these kids who are going to need – my feeling is many of them will need guidance support at least in the beginning, their families will. So we’re prepared, I think to me the beauty of being a New Yorker is that I cannot tell you how many principals emailed me and said count me in. What I’m also hearing from the New York State Commissioner that a big influx is actually going upstate New York. For any number – again family, where your family is, maybe where the jobs are. So I think this is something we’re prepared, we will put whatever we need to as a resource but until – like I said my feeling is by November 1st or so we’ll have much better idea.

Question: [Inaudible] the City has done just generally to deal with the families who may come here who may need housing, they may need other –

Mayor: Sure.

Question: – that the City can provide. Like is there a budget? You know, what are you doing?

Mayor: Marcia look, we’re here to help the Puerto Rican people. Right now we’re got 160 New York City employees on the ground in Puerto Rico dealing with what is still an emergency situation. The vast majority of the island doesn’t have electricity, there’s still people struggling to get food and water and the basic necessities. That’s job one. And as the Chancellor said the vast majority of Puerto Ricans who may be looking to locate in the short term can’t even get out now. So the first thing to do is to keep our support levels high for people on the ground there, keep sending those donations down, the resources we’re sending down to help the people of Puerto Rico. By the way, NYPD, FDNY are doing an outstanding job with those drives to get the supplies that people in Puerto Rico need. We want to keep those going strong.

But over the next few months, and I think the Chancellor’s right it will probably go well into November before we see any significant number of families coming up, look we’re going to do everything we can to support them and accommodate them starting with our public schools. We are built to handle whatever happens in our schools. We’re built to support whatever children show up each year. We will do that. You’ve heard the initial thinking, we are going to make sure that schools that have capacity are ready, if there’s some schools that are already overcrowded we’ll move kids to places nearby that can work. But let’s face it, we have – you’re talking about, as you said, kids who are Spanish-speaking, we have a huge number of Spanish-speaking staff in our school system, this is an area where we’re really going to be ready to help them.

In terms of other needs our public hospital system, same thing, we take all comers. We’ll be ready to help if people up here with particular health needs, we’ll work with Puerto Rican health officials to make sure information travels with them so that families get the prescriptions they need etcetera.

Housing is a challenge in this city for everyone. My strong assumption is if families are coming up they’re going to stay with other family members or other friends because that’s the only realistic option there is at this point. And I think there’s a lot of Puerto Rican New Yorkers who want their family members to come up and stay with them. But that’s also true in other parts of the country. There’s obviously very big Puerto Rican communities all over the country, most notably Florida. So, those that choose to leave the island will, I think, go to different parts of the country where they have family. Their family will by and large be the people who take them in. Our job will be to be there for them when it comes to schools for their kids, health care needs, excreta.

Chancellor Fariña: And I –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Hold on, I’ll come back to you Marcia. Go ahead.

Chancellor Fariña: And I just want to add one thing. We’re also –

Mayor: The Chancellor and then you.

Chancellor Fariña: We’re also anticipating that many students will be sent here by their families to be with family members but not with their parents. 

Mayor: Right.

Chancellor Fariña: So we’re training guidance counselors about how to deal with that for maybe students who have never been to this country, but they’re going to be living with aunts, uncles, and so we have made a big list of what we anticipate and so we’re prepared. We did some of this when Katrina hit years ago and we had an influx of families from then. And we expect to go through some of the same protocols. 

Mayor: I’ll come back Marcia, just hang on a second. 

Question: Thank you. So two things for Mayor de Blasio, number one, obviously New York State has a commitment to Puerto Rico, an ongoing commitment that you have just taken. This morning President Trump tweeted that FEMA cannot be in Puerto Rico for the long-haul. He’s not said that about –

Mayor: Yeah. Let me do this. I – no, no I’m going to come back to you. I want to just do everything else education. You will be the first question, I will come right back to you on the – what the President said about, but just anything else on education related?

Go ahead.

Question: I was wondering if you or the Chancellor had any response to the SUNY board of trustees passing this regulation that New York City’s biggest charter network will be able to create their own in-house teacher certification programs. The union is suing today and your colleagues at State are very critical.

Mayor: I’ll have the Chancellor begin that.

Chancellor Fariña: I believe certification of teachers is done for a reason, and I think that being able to say that you were held to a certain standard is important. And I think that we’re very lucky in New York that certainly in the last few years we’ve had some of the highest rated retention of teachers. So we’re very comfortable that we will be able to keep moving teachers that are certified into all our schools and obviously if other communities feel differently.

Mayor: I think that’s right. We, look – we, as many times we do our best to keep our own high standards even when the State government goes in the different direction. So we are comfortable with the approach we’re taking. We’re going to work with the charter schools no matter what. But as I’ve said many times, our first focus is on the 90 percent-plus of our kids who are in the traditional public schools, you know, living by the standards that we set.

Willie?

Question: On the 3-K again, could you talk about the lessons from the rollout of Universal Pre-K, in particular mistakes that were made that you want to not – that you want to learn from, that you won’t make this time.

Mayor: Yes, I often talk about when we first came up with the plan, which was in September and October of 2012 – I announced the pre-K vision on October 4th, 2012 – and we thought about a lot of the factors. We actually were pretty much right about the number of students. We were right that there would be a really energetic response from teachers who wanted to do this work. There were a lot of things we were right about. We were totally wrong in our assumptions about space, and it was one of those real shocks to the system when we got in the door in the beginning of 2014 on a very, very tight timeframe and had to stare down the barrel of that space reality. And I would say that Richard Buery and Josh Wallack, well Josh still has his hair. Richard if he had hair, would’ve lost it.

It was absolutely a race to the finish line both years for September of ’14 and September of ’15 to figure out how we could put together the space. And they did it, and I give them tremendous credit, and it was a full court press, and all City agencies were involved. That’s part of why we adjusted the timeline here. We were very sober about the space reality, and we knew – as it was mentioned before – there are some really overcrowded districts that are going to be a particular challenge. So I would say the mistake which we addressed ultimately, but it was by the skin of our teeth – the mistake the first time was to underestimate the space challenge. This time we are very clear one of the biggest factors in where we put 3-K for All is where space is available in the near term. And then the buildout, we have a lot of work to do to get the space ready.

And this has been a discussion from the moment we announced this vision with the School Construction Authority of what combination of features is going to get us there between the existing schools we’ll work with, public schools, community based organizations, religious schools, charter schools – all of that, but also where we’re going to have to build the early childhood education centers, and that timeline gave us enough time to put those pieces in place. So that’s one of the biggest changes we made.

Yes?

Question: I just wanted to go back to Staten Island. You’ve mentioned that you wanted to have it in every borough. Is that the main reason why this district was chosen? If there were others, can you explain them? I’m curious because it has one of the lowest poverty rates, and there’s other districts that –

Mayor: That’s why I –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Sure, as I said, I don’t want there to be a misunderstanding of what we’re doing here. And I’ll start, and if Richard or Josh want to add in. This is not changing the model. The model is universal, and we had the option – early on, again October 4, 2012 I announced the vision. We had the option – we talked long and hard about whether we, you know, realistically should just try to do pre-K for the highest need kids; or the highest need districts; whether a universal vision was reachable; whether it was the right priority. I came to the very firm decisions that the universal approach was the only one that made sense and would have the most fundamental impact on the future of this city, and we are repeating that again with 3-K.

The difference with 3-K is it is a much bigger effort, much tougher effort, and needs to be built out not over two years but over four years, and so when we thought about how to build out some very practical factors came into play – as I said, where is space now versus the places that will be space built for them or identified. And yes, we thought about need and that was a factor, but it wasn’t the only factor. We wanted to create a universal system, and you can’t build a universal system if you’re not reaching all five boroughs as early as possible. So I lot of factors went into it, but we are choosing districts that have different levels of need, different – generally districts that do have space obviously – different levels of need, and we really believe in having a five borough plan from the beginning.

Chancellor Fariña: I’d like to add to this.

Mayor: Please.

Chancellor Fariña: I want to be clear that every borough – but particularly Staten Island stands alone – has when we talk about equity has inequity. When you look at District 27 you have very, very high level of richness in certain parts of District 27, and then you have places like Rockaway. You have in Staten Island, two ends of the island. One that is not as equitable as the other. So I think, the 3-K gives us an opportunity to bring equity even to all the boroughs or all the districts because there isn’t a district that doesn’t have a section of need. So other than, as the Mayor said, that we want universal, this is an opportunity for us also in places where there is a little bit more inequity geographically within the same district where we can level the playing field.

Mayor: Let me just add to that before turning to my colleagues. So this district, District 27 – Ozone Park but also Broad Channel, Howard Beach, and the Rockaways. District –

Chancellor Fariña: Four?

Mayor: I’m sorry, no, I was going to go to 29 next. District 29 includes a variety of communities – Cambria Heights, Hollis, Laurelton, Queens Village, Springfield Gardens, St. Albans, you know communities that have a very strong middle class core to them in addition to some areas of need. And, you know, Staten Island as the chancellor said – a variety of different types of communities. So we are trying to signal very, very clearly this is going to be a universal program. We want it for every kind of child.

Deputy Mayor Buery: I just want to reiterate one point, just following up on what the Mayor said. It’s important to remember the benefits of pre-K come to all children across a variety of income swaths, so even though lower income children have higher benefits that doesn’t mean that working class and middle class children don’t benefit as well, and ultimately because we’re trying to have excellent outcomes for the entire school system, having all children better prepared is to the benefit of the entire system. So I just think it’s important to reiterate that. Of course you want to make sure these services get to highest need students, and in the universal system they get to do that. But there are all sorts of benefits to those low income students to having a diverse system, and so that’s what we’re trying to accomplish in our roll out.

Mayor: So others on education? Were you – we’ll come around on the FEMA question.

Question: Can you talk about the $180 million? Obviously, the City is not spending that now. Where is that going to come from, and then secondly the city is serving three-year-olds, right? In ACS programs? So can you talk a little bit about the work that’s being done to bring that kind of in line with the Pre-K model?

Mayor: Sure, and I’ll turn to Richard and Josh on the second part. 

But on the first part it is from our point of view, a big change to bring kids into a universal 3-K model. The efforts under ACS have been very good and very helpful to a lot of families, but this is now moving to a more academic model, which they can talk about and a more rigorous model. The money – the $180 million – we are making it a budget priority first of all. So it will go to the head of the line. Second, we are confident now having seen four years of our savings plan and four years of what’s happened with our healthcare savings in terms of our City employees in particular that we can find that $180 million by the time we ramp up to the year 2020 going into 2021. So that’s based on looking ahead in our budget process, looking at where things stand based on everything we know today. Believing that we’ll be able to sustain those savings, and that will be the underlying source of revenue that we can bring to bear here.

Deputy Chancellor Wallack: Lorelei can talk about the work.

Deputy Commissioner for Early Care and Education Lorelei Vargas, ACS:So ACS has partnered really closely with the Department of Education to create as smooth a transition essentially building on the early learn system that we have here in the city, which is a high quality system and adding these additional seats to grow the 3-K program. So there have been a lot of meetings, a lot of discussion, a lot of embedding staff between the two systems to learn from each other. We at ACS certainly don’t feel we have all the answers, and the DOE has also been very open to learning. So we’re learning from each other to essentially create the best system. 

Deputy Chancellor Wallack: Yes, I would just add that this is again in some ways a repetition of the story of Pre-K For All where we came in and built on a very strong base of work that had been done in district schools but also in community based organizations that had been providing high quality early care and education in our neighborhoods for decades under the auspices of the Administration for Children’s Services and the Department of Education, and what we mean to do here is bring together the best of those systems and create one high quality 3-K experience for every three-year-old in New York City, and that’s what we’re – that’s what we’ve set about doing, and that’s what we got underway in two districts, and we’re going to take off from there.

Mayor: Yes?

Question: On the ATR issue, I just wanted to ask what would you say in response to concerns that the schools with the most openings at this point are the lower performing schools, and you’re taking a pool of teachers that people have concerns about the effectiveness of some of these teachers and just concerns that the lower performing schools are going to get teachers of, I guess, questionable effectiveness?

Mayor: Well, the Chancellor will speak to some of this, and I think she is an exemplar of someone who cares deeply to make sure our children get high quality teaching everywhere. I’m going to speak to the overall facts. First of all, there are people in the ATR pool who are very good teachers and are there because a school closed, a school merged, or some other extenuating circumstance. There are also people we believed from the beginning shouldn’t be in the teaching profession. About 1,900 of them have been moved out of the teaching profession in this city over the last four years, which is a more aggressive rate than what happened under the previous administration. We’ve gotten over 300 folks who are in the ATR pool out of that pool all together. We’re going to continue to reduce that pool over the next year steadily, but we believe that there is now a real process in place to find the right placement for someone in that ATR pool with principals who are ready to take the talented folks and apply them best, and if they find in some cases someone is not up to the challenge, they’re ready to act on that and we can work to move that person out of the system.

Go ahead, Chancellor.

Chancellor Fariña: Actually, it’s exactly what the Mayor just said. We’re not putting people who have a record of not behaving in any school. We are not putting them in Renewal Schools. We are also very clearly asking everyone to be vetted by the principal and then also if the principal needs help once the person arrives, and they’re not the right fit for the school, we will be assisting that principal in making sure that that teacher doesn’t stay in that building. But I want to be clear once again that many schools have thanked us for the people we’ve sent them or they’ve interviewed. We’ve had interviews where principals could come and interview people in the ATR pool, and they have been hired at those pools. So we need to be very careful when we start labeling people. They’re not all the same type. They’re not all there for the same reason, but right now whatever openings are left after October 15th – because up until now principals had free reign to hire their own teachers through multiple measures – it’s only after October 15th when there’s still a vacancy that we feel we need to have a person in that classroom. And we’ll work with the principals on this.

Mayor: Go ahead.

Question: One more time, universal 3-K, when all is said and done – 60,000 you said? 60,000?

Mayor: Yes, so Pre-K is getting up to about 70,000. 3-K, we’re going to say will be around 60,000 total for the city per year.

Anything else on education before we move over to other topics?

Okay, you go. 

Question: So two questions for you Mayor de Blasio, first, in regards to President Trump’s tweets, ‘FEMA cannot stay in Puerto Rico for an extended period of time” which is completely a conflict of New York City’s commitment –

Mayor: Yes.

Question: – to the recovery of that island. The second question is for you Mayor is another completely separate topic and it’s about the Harvey Weinstein investigation.

Mayor: Let me do the first one, and I’ll come to the second. I really don’t understand what President Trump’s problem is with the people of Puerto Rico, why he keeps denigrating the people of Puerto Rico, showing a lack of interest in their needs, treating them as different than other Americans, that’s what’s happening here. I used the really clear analogy, there’s almost the exact same population in Puerto Rico as there is in the state of Connecticut, it’s almost 3.5 million people. If the state of Connecticut had 80 percent of its people didn’t have electricity, people were struggling to get food and water every day, people couldn’t move around, their schools, their hospitals were destroyed. The entire American military would be there saving people’s lives, helping them get back on their feet and there’d be an open-ended commitment to that. There wouldn’t – no one in the world would question that. If an entire American state was going through a crisis such as we’ve never seen before, we all would say as Americans give them whatever they need to get back to normal. Why should the standard be different for Puerto Rico?

So the President from the beginning has been unwilling to recognize the full extent of the crisis in Puerto Rico and take responsibility for it. How is he talking about pulling out of Puerto Rico when he hasn’t even put in the resources they need there yet? It makes no sense. And I think he’s just trying to avoid blame when he should recognize it’s his responsibility. He wanted the job, it’s his responsibility. People in Puerto Rico need a lot more than they’re getting right now. Why doesn’t he help Puerto Rico get back on its feet and when they’re finally back on their feet that’s the time to talk about when FEMA can come out.

Question: [Inaudible] Harvey Weinstein [inaudible] obviously have been monitoring what’s been going on with the Manhattan DA’s Office and the NYPD investigation. So, it has come out, obviously, there was an audio tape in 2015. The Sex Crimes Unit did an operation where a woman made a complaint. There was a subsequent recording. The DA’s Office said it did not prosecute because those detectives did not consult with prosecutors from the Sex Crimes Office.

So, then there was a little back and forth, which I’m sure you’re aware of –

Mayor: No, I’m actually not familiar with all the details but let – no, no. I’m not –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I can tell you right now the answer to your question because I don’t know all the details and I’m not going to talk about something I’m not familiar with the details with, in terms of law enforcement.

I can say this – from what little I do know, the NYPD pursued this very vigorously. I don’t know what happened between the DA and the NYPD, and I can’t conjecture. That’s the truth.

Okay, way back.

Question: Mr. Mayor, can you give us a couple of things that we can expect, you know, if you are given a second term? New items – you released, I think, a 153 of them when you first ran in 2013. Can you give us maybe five today?

Mayor: Again, I’m not going to offer you news flashes today. There’s another four weeks before Election Day. We’re going to have a lot more to say in the next four weeks. I can say that the difference between being an incumbent and being someone running for the office is that for four years, we’ve been announcing initiatives that affect people’s lives, and many of which are just beginning and are going to grow and grow and grow. The Equity and Excellence vision for our schools, 3-K, the 100,000 jobs plan – there are a lot of examples of things that are just beginning and are going to build out and have a very big impact.

So, I think there’s a lot of material on the table right now, plenty for the people to judge by, but I will also tell you there will be some major announcements in the next four weeks.

Question: What can we expect this –

Mayor: Again, there’ll be major announcements in the next four weeks.

Question: Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, what’s the –

Mayor: That was nice of you –

Question: Why all the secrecy –

Mayor: That was nicer than the debate the other day.

[Laughter]

Question: Why all the secrecy on the monument commission? What’s –

Mayor: The commission is dealing with very sensitive, complex subject matter. They’re beginning their discussions. And it’s clear, there’s going to be a public component. They’re going to seek out the voices of New Yorkers and then come up with, at least, the beginning of a vision of how we move forward as a city universally.

So, this is just the beginning of a longer process. Yes?

Question: Mayor, do you think it’s appropriate for a District Attorney to accept campaign contributions from criminal defense attorneys?

Mayor: Look, I think we need a lot of campaign finance reform. I’m not an expert on that particular topic. I would like to see us move to a public financing system across the board and I’d like to see the repeal of Citizens United but those are big changes that will take a lot of time. But I can’t comment on that narrow question. I just don’t know enough about it.

Marcia?

Question: Sir, getting back to the Puerto Rico situation. If people come here and they don’t have family, do you have any plans for where they could live? Will they stay in hotels? Will you allot some affordable housing? Something like that?

And secondly, it’s [inaudible] is there money that the City has that can help them and how would they –

Mayor: Marcia, we do not have that plan and I don’t want to encourage people to come here if they don’t have some family to turn to. I think we have to be really clear about that. This is a city, right now, it’s ready to do anything and everything for people who come here but we are also clear that we have tremendous strains we’re dealing with right now – and housing is our number one.

I think what you’re going to see is that people coming out of Puerto Rico – obviously, look, a lot of people are going to choose to stay and rebuild, we know that. But folks who decide they have to leave are going to look at options around the country where their family is. They’re going to look at economic opportunity and the cost of housing like anyone else would. 

Again, some people, I think, will come here because of their family ties. And they know that we’ll do everything to support them. Other people, I think, are going to Florida because I think there’ll be other opportunities there. But I want to be clear, we can’t do what the federal government does. We have a lot of challenges serving people here.

If people come here and they have a place to live, we’re going do, then, everything we can to help them in terms of schools, healthcare, etcetera. 

Yeah, oh wait, I got you already. Let me get somebody who hasn’t gone. Go ahead.

Question: Mr. Mayor, the Department of Justice, looks like they sent a letter to the City basically giving the City about two weeks to prove that you’re in compliance as a sanctuary city or else risk losing the funds. Do you believe you’re in compliance?

Mayor: Yes.

Question: And if not, are you concerned about –

Mayor: We are in compliance. We are fully in compliance with the law. The NYPD deserves the anti-terrorism funding they have gotten from the federal government, and if President Trump stops our funding for the NYPD, we will see the President in court. It’s as simple as that. We are fully in compliance. The Supreme Court under Justice Roberts – in fact, he wrote the decision in 2012 – said that the federal government cannot for political reasons withhold funding of this nature. That was reiterated in another court action recently. We are fully in compliance, and if they want to have a court battle, we are ready for that court battle.

Question: Mr. Mayor, Mr. Weinstein has given considerable amounts of political money to various Democrats. Do you know whether your campaign every received any from him and if you didn’t are you relieved?

Mayor: It’s deeply troubling what Harvey Weinstein did, and it’s unacceptable and I hope his rapid decline and fall is a message to anyone who would engage in harassment that that’s what’s going to happen to them next. There’s no place for that in our society anymore.

The only contribution I ever received from him was in 2001 for $500. It’s an account that obviously has long since closed. My message to everyone who has current accounts with money from Harvey Weinstein is – give that money back, give it to charity, get the hell away from it. No one in their right mind should be keeping contributions from Harvey Weinstein.

Question: I don’t know if you made any public comments yet but [inaudible] your reaction to the debate. Many people called it a circus-like atmosphere –

Mayor: Yeah, it was not what the people of New York City deserved. It was not structured to be the kind of conversation it should have been. We have serious issues we’re dealing with. It should have been a thoughtful format that allowed for a real discussion of the issues, and it was a lost opportunity.

Question: [Inaudible] with that, do you blame the moderators, the venue, or was it just the other candidates?

Mayor: With all due respect to the people who put together the debate – they didn’t put it together the right way. If you invite a big crowd of partisans, you either have to create ground rules to really ensure that they keep respectful or don’t invite a big crowd of partisans or have it in a studio. There’s a lot of options. They didn’t do it right. Period.

I went to the presidential debate in the primary between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. There were a lot of partisans in the room but it was made very clear from the beginning many, many times by everyone who was running the debate that after the initial applause for the candidates, that only the most minimal response would be tolerated.

And that was what happened. There were occasional little moments of applause or reaction but did not stop there from being an intelligent meaningful debate. This wasn’t that and it was done the wrong way and it was a disservice to the people of New York City.

Unknown: Last two.

Question: Mayor de Blasio, anything on the executive order from President Trump today to make adjustments to Obamacare that would as – according to the administration – provide relief for small businesses. The fact that they went through executive order instead of through Congress.

Mayor: Look, I have not seen the executive order. We can tell the Trump administration is trying to destroy Obamacare via executive order. We can see this in many, many ways. They’re not promoting the opportunity to sign up under the Affordable Care Act for health insurance. They’re just trying to destroy something that has served tens of millions of people, and it’s unconscionable.

And now I think one thing we know for sure – this was one positive residue of President Trump’s election – a clear majority of the American people believe in the Affordable Care Act and do not want it undermined.

So, I wish the President would listen to that majority and again there’s no alternative that’s been offered that would work. So, they should stop trying to destroy the one thing that so many Americans actually depend on for their insurance.

Last one.

Question: Mayor, we had a story in the news last week about some Council members who were concerned about how quickly homeless families were placed in hotel rooms within their districts. I know that the City’s policy is to give 30 days of notice to local communities regarding a shelter –

Mayor: Correct.

Question: And that hotel accommodations are considered emergency – an emergency use. But when the City is taking an entire hotel and renting every room in it to house homeless families, how is that fundamentally different than opening a new shelter?

Mayor: It really depends on whether something is a temporary action or a long term action. If we – we’re clear – and it was mistake, I think, not to give better notice on shelter openings in the past and we’ve said that and we’ve modified the policy so now it’s 30 days. If something is a permanent shelter, people deserve that notice – the elected officials, the community board, and a chance to really work with us on the kinds of measures we need to take to make the situation as best possible for the community.

So, if we are taking on a hotel for ongoing use, we do owe people that notice. If we’re using it on a temporary basis, regardless the number of rooms, if we do not expect to be using it on an ongoing basis, then it qualifies under the category of hotel and we’ll give whatever notice we can but a lot of times it is literally a game time decision, a snap decision about where we can find accommodation for people for a given night and we don’t have an opportunity to give more notice.

Question: But if you’re renting out an entire hotel, I mean, isn’t that, A – a different use than what people were expecting perhaps but B –  I mean doesn’t that require some kind of headway from the City in terms of the contract involved and [inaudible] –

Mayor: You’ll have to ask the folks at Social Services about the details but it’s a very dynamic situation. Every night is different and every time of year is different. We see day-to-day real changes in how many people are in shelter and the weather factors into it. There’s lots of different x-factors. 

So, there can be times when we need a substantial number of rooms suddenly and then the next night we don’t. So, again, they can – the folks at Social Services can go into the details but if we’re using it on a temporary basis, no matter how many rooms, that’s a temporary use.

If we’re going to be using it on an ongoing basis, the community deserves notice.

Thanks everyone.

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