Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here in the Bronx for an announcement that we have been looking forward to making for quite some time. Before I begin, I want to thank Governor Kathy Hochul for her partnership. Making universal childcare a reality has always been a core part of your fight for New York's families, and it has been a privilege to do this work alongside you. And today, frankly, would not be possible were it not for your support. I also want to acknowledge leaders both inside and outside of City government that are here with us today. We have our New York City Public Schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels, here with us. We have our Bronx borough president, Vanessa Gibson. We have our state senator, Gustavo Rivera, who is here with us. We have the chair of the education committee of the City Council, Eric Dinowitz, who is with us here. We have Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, who is also here with us, and we know that Councilmember Amanda Farías will be joining us shortly. And I want to thank, finally, the whole team at BedRock Preschool for having us here this morning and for the incredible work that they do on a daily basis. We can give them a round of applause.
In the 2012 mixtape "Rich Forever," Rick Ross and French Montana expound on what it takes to stay scheming within a system that so often seems to benefit only a select few. Unfortunately, too many New York City families can relate. Though the circumstances of their schemes may look different, they too must stay creative to afford childcare in our city. While there is pride in managing to make it all work, Rick Ross is clear that scheming takes a toll - stress, exhaustion [and] hypervigilance. Again, what working parent can't relate.
Today, we are one step closer to doing away with New Yorkers' need to stay scheming because today we are incredibly proud to announce that we have filled our first seats for free 2-K programs in our city. Next month, 2,000 of New York's cutest will begin learning, playing and growing at 2-K programs across four areas of our city, including right here in School District 10.
We are lucky enough to have a participating family here today. Can we please give Sandra and Stella a round of applause as they take on this exciting new chapter? As we said about this work, we made a promise to take seriously the feedback we'd heard from parents for years about 3-K and about pre-K. For universal childcare to work, it needs to meet parents where they are - not a borough away, not three train transfers away, but in a way that works for working parents' lives. Today, I am proud to say we have delivered that.
Among the families we have been able to place, more than 80 percent received an offer to one of their top three choices with close to 60 percent receiving their first choice. Ninety-nine percent received offers to a program they expressed preference for, and a full 100 percent of these families will save more than $20,000 per child per year on childcare beginning this fall. At the same time, we know that demand for universal free 2-K is high. We received more than 5,700 applications for 2,000 seats. That's about three applicants for every available seat.
In the coming days and weeks, we will be reaching out to families on our waitlists to walk them through their options. Availability historically opens up before the first day of school, and these families will be the first to know. While there is still much to be done, today represents a monumental step on the path to universal childcare here in New York City, a step that brings us closer to the moment where that process and that promise tobecome a reality. In just a few weeks, 2,000 two-year-olds will put on their googly-eyed crocs and strap on their tiny backpacks and head to their first day of 2-K.
Next year, that number will jump from 2,000 to 12,000. But this journey did not begin seven months ago when I took office or nearly two years ago when we made free universal childcare a central tenet of the campaign for mayor. This journey began many years ago with organizers, advocates and working parents across the five boroughs, sounding the alarm about the crushing cost of childcare. It began with New Yorkers who spoke of loving their neighborhoods, loving their careers [and] loving their families but who were forced to move, forced to drop out of the workforce or forego another child because of the unaffordability of childcare.
I want to thank each and every one of those New Yorkers who spent time they didn't have knocking on doors, talking to their neighbors, gathering signatures for petitions with a newborn strapped to their chest. We stand on the precipice of a truly transformative moment for our city because of you. Together, we are writing a better chapter for all those who come next, for the generations of New Yorkers many years from now who will start families here in our city and who will not need to worry about leaving their job or moving out of the neighborhood they love to make it all work.
