Mayor Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. It is always a pleasure to be back in Queens, and Jackson Heights, especially. Yes, shout out to Queens, especially when you arrive via the toddler rope, which I cannot say I've ever done before. I want to acknowledge our governor, Kathy Hochul, who's here and has been a partner in so much of this. I want to acknowledge also our chancellor, Kamar Samuels, who's with us. It is a pleasure to be here alongside the early childhood chair in the City Council, Councilwoman Jen Gutiérrez, who's here with us; [and] our local Council member, Council Member Shekar Krishnan. And I also want to thank Principal Christopher Herman of the Garden School. It is a real pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having us. You know, here in Jackson Heights, it takes a minute or two to walk one block as the crow flies. However, when you are walking on the toddler rope, it can take five minutes per block, maybe more. And because someone needs to stop and inspect 14 rocks, someone wants to touch every fire hydrant, someone won't walk further until they've seen a yellow taxi, and someone needs to debate whether or not the clouds actually look like dinosaurs. And the spoiler alert is yes, that they, in fact, do.
But in all seriousness, when you are a parent trying to drop your child off at daycare, adding to your commute twice a day is a very long time. While universal Pre-K and 3-K will deliver major relief to parents, we know that our work has only just begun. For years, the demand for seats has exceeded the supply. As a result, working parents have frequently had to choose between traveling a significant distance for free childcare or spending more than $20,000 per child per year to stay closer to home. Universal childcare should mean meeting parents where they are no matter where they live. And it is such a pleasure to be here alongside so many leaders in this fight, because just yesterday our administration announced that we are adding 2,000 new 3-K seats across 57 new ZIP codes citywide. This is double the number of our previous 3-K expansion plan. And it's why today I'm proud to announce that we have extended 99,921 3-K and Pre-K offers to families across the five boroughs this year. I'm especially proud of the fact that we have extended offers that meet New York's families where they are. Seventy percent of families received an offer from their top 3-K choice, which is a 5 percent increase from last year. Eighty-five percent of families received an offer from one of their top three choices, another five percent increase from last year.
And we've also reduced the average distance between a family's home and their childcare center by a third of a mile, also known as somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, or the time it takes a toddler to walk six blocks. That's the time that now parents will be able to have to get a cup of coffee or make it to work on time. Time to cook dinner in the evenings a little earlier, spend a little bit more time together before bedtime. Time that will frankly add a little more dignity and lift a little bit more anxiety from the lives of working parents. After all, as Wiz Khalifa once said: "Time is money, so I went and bought a Rolex." Now, unfortunately, City Hall will not be buying parents Rolexes. We are just coming out of our budget deficit. But we do agree that time is time, and New Yorkers deserve a lot more of it. And I want to thank our governor who's here with us today, because so much of this has been made possible thanks to the governor's commitment of $1.2 billion, investing not only in the first time in New York City history for free childcare for two-year-olds, but also increasing the quality of childcare that we were already delivering across the city, and that is such a key part of what we're celebrating here today.
Because we want these improvements to serve as examples - examples that [show] our efforts to rebuild New York City's childcare system are working. Examples that [show] we can make it easier to raise a child in the city you love without being forced out by rising costs and rising stress. And examples that when government understands its purpose as serving the working people who power our city, it can deliver change that working people can truly feel. Because what we are seeing today is that even for families who are placed in a program outside of their preferred options, we have, thanks to this infusion of support from the governor. Been able to cut the average distance they have to travel by nearly a mile on average. That is saving them time, saving them stress. And we're going to continue working every single day to build a better city for New Yorkers, to build a city where people have the time to live the lives they deserve and to raise the families that they love. Thank you so much for being here today to celebrate this momentous day in our city's history. And I want to pass it over now to someone who really made this possible. Thank you, Governor Kathy Hochul.
Governor Kathy Hochul: Starting off the day with three-year-olds is my idea of a good day. As a grandmother of a three- year-old. I want to thank the mayor for the invitation to join him for this very significant announcement. And people should not underestimate what this means. It is a sign of the fruition of a real commitment to partner together to deliver something that New Yorkers have dreamed about - talked about - but never had up until now. So, thank you for helping us work together to make New York City [and] New York state the best place in America to raise a family. And I'm committed to that. I want to thank our Council members here, our principal, our chancellor once again, and all of our teams.
But, you know, you think about what it takes to be a parent in this city, [and] it is hard. It is hard. I just came out of my apartment building in Midtown and spent half the time talking to five-month-old Molly in a stroller, realizing that her dad probably had a very small place because all of our places are small. And raising a child there and the expenses and the stress and the worry that parents have just walking into our streets. You know, it takes a special kind of person who says: "I want to have my child raised in this vibrant, incredible place." But also, it's so darn expensive. And when you think about the fact that it's anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 a year for childcare, if you had to cover that from birth up until kindergarten, a lot of people are starting to rethink whether or not they're even going to have families. And that to me is tragic, tragic, that you have to factor that in, that they can't afford a house or a place to live or they can't afford - maybe they have one child they're not going to be able to afford a second education for later. But childcare should not be on that list of worries. And that's what we're committed to, taking that off the list and saying we're committed to you and your families.
And I'll say this: not only is it important for the family, just like my family years and years ago, when we had our children and I was working in Washington for a senator, I love that job. And I never dreamed I'd have to say goodbye to it because we couldn't find affordable childcare, but that's exactly what happened. So, I landed okay. I'm doing fine after having to give up a job I love, so don't worry about me. But at the time, there was so much uncertainty. You're having to go from two incomes to one. My husband working for the government, we struggled. You know, I knew all about the coupons, and buying the Pampers and the jars of baby food and all those extra costs that are there when they're little. So, I want to say this as a governor: I believe that what we can do to make New York a better place for families [can] also make us more competitive nationally. Think about this: we are the number one destination in America for college graduates, but then something happens, they start a family. It's like: "Ah, I wanna stay, but I h e to move out." We do not want that to happen. We want people who wanna be here to be able to afford to stay here. And so, taking off that cost is gonna be a help for them as a family. But also, think of the businesses.
If you're trying to recruit the best talent from across the country, and people are evaluating where they can go - the cost of living of different cities - and they know that coming to New York City, they don't have to worry about the cost of childcare when we fully implement our vision for universal childcare across New York City and the state. We are now in a very competitive position to recruit individuals who otherwise might have said, "No, I can't afford to live in New York." This is the beauty of what we're doing here. And I'm so excited about it. So, the families who are doing everything they're asked to do, getting education or getting a job and building careers, building families, they're doing everything right. We as a government have a responsibility to help lift them up at this moment. So, I will not go on about being New York's first mom governor. Everyone has heard me say that a thousand times.
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Thank you. New York's first mom governor. New Yorks first grandma governor. But it gives you a perspective - it truly does - of what those struggles were like for me. And I've cultivated this really strong sense of empathy for all the other families. A belief in them and knowing that they will get through these days, but we are there to help them. So, I want to say this. The budget I laid out in January helped become a culmination of a vision that I launched years ago, at first as lieutenant governor chairing the statewide commission on childcare but also as governor. Over the last four years, we have spent $8 billion, $8 billion from our budget to help families directly with subsidies. At one time you had to be making $57,000 or less in order to get a childcare subsidy. It is now over $108,000. Look how many more families and children we could pick up with those changes and recovering that cost. Building more, bricks and mortar, helping subsidize renovation [of] people's homes. Building the capacity to do what we're doing here today is to expand outward.
So, I made these changes and I'll tell you, it makes a huge difference when you have a partner who shares that vision, who will say, yes, what can we do to get this done? So, I was so excited to put in support for $1.2 billion in our budget to help the city out with their funding for $100 million extra to help solve the three-year-old program, which we talked about - we talked about that last summer. About how we have the right sizes, get people able to have seats in their own neighborhood and not expect them to go across the city to get a slot. So, we're solving for that and I commend you and your team for accomplishing that.
We also want to make sure that statewide, we have universal 4K, which we do not have everywhere, and making sure that we have programs to cover infants up through third grade as well, so up to three-year-olds as well. So, we're supportive, we're here with the money, but we're just getting started. But this is a message loud and clear for families across the country. We're gonna get this done. We're not backing out. And I'm here to commit state resources, my commitment this year and beyond, to support the city, what you're doing, as well as the rest of the state, because there is no place like New York. We just want the rest the world to know it. Thank you very much.
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Mayor Mamdani: And now it's my pleasure to introduce the man who coined the phrase "New York's Cutest," our chancellor, Kamar Samuels.
Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels, New York City Public Schools: Well, thank you for giving me credit there, I appreciate that. Thank you, governor. Thank you again to Mayor Mamdani, Emmy Liss, and for their hard work and collaboration in making this possible. Thank you also to Council Member Krishnan and Council Member Gutiérrez for your support and advocacy, which is really, really important. I'm excited to be here as we announced nearly 100,000 offers to families for 3-K and Pre-K for the upcoming school year. That's nearly a hundred thousand young people who will walk through our doors to a free, high-quality early childhood program. Many of them for the very first time. This year we were able to give more families their top choices, which means their children will be in the neighborhood they know with people that they love.
And as a superintendent, I worked across two districts. I worked in Brooklyn and Manhattan. And the number one reason I shifted to move to Manhattan was to be closer to home and have a much better commute. And so, speaking of closer, every child, every seat that we added in high demand neighborhoods has a shorter commute for families. This is real time, back in the hands of families every single morning. And as dad with three kids, I know what mornings can look like. And I'm telling you, we want a less stressful situation for all of our families. Options that make sense and showing them that our system is working for them. We are just getting started. We can't wait to welcome all of - yes, New York's cutest - next year, showing them especially the new ones, but also absolutely the returning ones. Thank you so much for everything you all do, I am excited to get to work.
