New York Comptroller Is Concerned Over Pre-K Contract Delays (NY Times - August 27, 2014) EXCERPT: A week before the start of the school year, more than 300 New York City contracts with organizations that will be teaching prekindergarten classes have not been delivered by the city to the comptroller’s office for required vetting. The office of Comptroller Scott M. Stringer said Wednesday night in a news release that the Education Department had delivered only 141 of more than 500 contracts for review, despite repeated requests for the documents. Mr. Stringer’s criticism of the delay comes as Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, is trying to ensure that a major expansion of prekindergarten — one of his administration’s signature initiatives — goes forward next week without any significant problems. Mr. Stringer, a fellow Democrat, supports the expansion, but said that his office’s role in reviewing the contracts was important, particularly given how quickly the programs had been pulled together and how many new vendors the city had enlisted. While most of the contracts reviewed so far have been approved by the comptroller, Mr. Stringer’s office said, some have raised concerns. In one case, the office discovered a vendor with six violations for failing to have personnel screened by a state agency that tracks child abuse reports. “We are the fresh eyes to this contracting process,” Mr. Stringer said in an interview. He and his staff met with Mr. de Blasio and some of his top aides for about 90 minutes on Wednesday to discuss the Education Department’s slow compliance. “It became clear to me that we were not going to get these contracts anytime soon,” Mr. Stringer said. Mr. de Blasio pushed back with a statement that several departments — including health, fire, and education — had been ensuring the safety of the prekindergarten programs. “We scrutinize every pre-K center the same way a parent would, because we’re parents, too,” he said. The mayor made clear, though, that he was not going to be slowed by the comptroller’s office. “We will, of course, make sure the comptroller has the documents he needs to register contracts in a timely way,” Mr. de Blasio said. “But make no mistake, we are moving forward aggressively to launch our programs this September and will not allow administrative paperwork to stand in the way of educating thousands of children.” Mr. Stringer said he, too, was concerned about the children and that was why he was pressing to be able to conduct his review. “We cannot sacrifice safety for anything,” he said, adding later, “We’re dealing with little 4-year-old children.”
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 12:46:02 +0000
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