Earlier today a group of Universal Pre-K (UPK) advocates, including State Senator Pete Harckham, Assemblymember Dana Levenberg, plus Croton-Harmon school district officials, board members, and parents, held a press conference at Childrenspace North in the hills of Croton to push for accelerated funding of UPK throughout New York state. The press conference was hosted by Childrenspace North co-directors Staci Hall and Sarah Forth, who also spoke at the gathering.
A key issue was that while Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed investing $4.5 billion in the 2026-2027 state budget for UPK—which could have the effect of raising the per child subsidy from the current $5,400 to $10,000—even if that legislation passes many school districts outside New York City would not see full funding for their programs until 2028.
So while Harckham and Levenberg said that they were confident the state legislature would approve the additional money in the new budget, which will be finalized in early April, they are pushing to move truly universal Pre-K up a full year, to 2027.
Also present to make the case were Croton-Harmon school board members Anamika Bhatnagar (currently the board’s vice president) and Sarah Carrier, along with Superintendent Stephen Walker and Rachel DePaul, Asst. Superintendent for Pupil Personnel Services.
Harckham pointed out that once the state has truly Universal Pre-K, parents would no longer have to endure the uncertainties of lottery selection to see if their children would get a space. Currently only 56% of children statewide end up getting a space under the current system, he said.
“We don’t have a lottery for the 5th Grade,” Harckham said, so there should not be a lottery for Pre-K—especially given the proven benefits to children from those early experiences. “Let’s move 2028 into 2027,” he concluded.
At the press conference, two local parents, Rachel McGregor and Rebecca Turnbull, spoke about how important Pre-K had been to their children and to themselves. McGregor talked about the social and emotional skills her three year old had gained from Pre-K, adding that children “are real people” who need the maximum support to thrive.
Rebecca Turnbull, the owner/founder of Croton’s Little Star Pastry, explained that without childcare she would not have been able to start her business, and that the majority of her income from the shop goes to paying for it.
At its meeting on February 26, the Croton-Harmon Board of Education announced that the contracts for providing Pre-K in the 2026-27 school year had been awarded to Childrenspace North, which would provide about 54 spaces, and A Rising Star Children’s Center, which would provide about ten.
At a board meeting last December, Childrenspace North co-directors Staci Hall and Sarah Forth told the trustees that they would no longer be able to continue providing Pre-K to the district unless the per child subsidy were raised substantially, because they were currently running at a loss. We talked to both of them after the press conference, and they said that they were “hopeful” the available funds would be there in time.
However, in a message to Pre-K advocates late last week, Jacob Day, who has been leading the parents’ movement, criticized the board for not raising questions about what happens if the money is not available for our district (Day pointed out that only board member Allison Samuels had raised any questions at all about the plan.)
Day asked why the district does not have a backup plan in case there is a shortfall.
Day and other parents have asked district officials to provide bridge funding to keep the Pre-K program alive if Albany falls short, which they would have to approve during their own budget process between April 9-21. But district officials have made it clear they will not dip into their reserve funds to make that happen.
Meanwhile, advocates are circulating a petition, entitled “Save Croton UPK!” which currently has more than 700 signatures.
April is just around the corner, and so we can expect more news from the state legislature soon. We will update this story as need be.
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Department of Correction: In an earlier story today, we mistakenly wrote that school board president Ana Teague was up for election this May 19; we meant to say Anamika Bhatnagar, who has announced her intention to run again along with board members Sarah Carrier and Neal Haber. We regret the error.
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