Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos believes Long Island children are being short-changed compared to their city counterparts.
Maragos advocated on behalf of Nassau children for equal funding for universal pre-kindergarten education in a recent letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Long Island elected officials, school superintendents and business leaders. The comptroller highlights that the 2015 state budget provided Pre-K education funding to New York City is vastly disproportionate to monies provided for Nassau County, Suffolk and other counties. For the 2015-16 school year, New York City will receive $529.4 million in Pre-K funding while Nassau will receive only $12.4 million. The city will receive more than 42 times as much funding as Nassau County, despite having only six times as many 4-year-olds. The comptroller estimated Nassau is being shortchanged by $77 million annually.
“It is fundamentally unfair that Nassau County children are being deprived of equal funding,” Maragos said. “With an additional $77 million from the state our school districts can expand Pre-K programs, which have proven life-long benefits including higher high school graduation rates, improved academic outcomes and greater earnings in life.”
Nassau County is currently funded for only 20 percent of its 4-year old children, while the city receives funding for 70 percent of its 4-year-olds. The state also provides $9,053 per student to the city while Nassau receives less than half of that at $4,434 per student. Maragos said that in the interest of fairness, Nassau should have been funded at the same level as the city ($9,053 per student for 70 percent of Nassau’s 4-year-olds) in the 2015 state budget. This equates to $77 million in Pre-K under-funding for Nassau County.
Maragos said that studies of early childhood programs have shown lifelong positive effects, especially for low-income and at-risk children. These benefits include improved language, literacy, mathematics and science outcomes in elementary school, decreased grade retention (repeating a grade), improved long-term achievement test scores, increased earnings and reduced arrests.
“There is no question that Nassau County’s children deserve the same treatment as New York City’s children,” Maragos said. “I urge the governor and our local state representatives to fight for our children when the 2016 New York State budget is determined to ensure fair and equitable Pre-K funding for Nassau school districts.”
