NEW YORK — New York Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander is becoming a member of an eleventh-hour push to thwart unpopular cuts to town’s preschool program as he inches nearer to difficult Mayor Eric Adams’ reelection bid subsequent yr.
Lander, a progressive Democrat occupying a citywide workplace, will rally alongside fellow politicians, town lecturers union and oldsters denied a preschool seat Wednesday morning. In doing so, he’s going after the centrist Democratic mayor on considered one of his chief vulnerabilities: the rising value of dwelling in New York Metropolis.
“As you discuss to individuals about what are the issues they’re enthusiastic about, affordability broadly. However housing and little one care are on the prime of the record, are what are on households’ minds and what they’re anxious about,” Lander instructed POLITICO.
He’s anticipated to announce plans to run in July, and Wednesday’s rally exterior the Division of Schooling’s Decrease Manhattan headquarters offers him a chance to raise his advocacy on a problem prone to be essential in subsequent yr’s major.
Adams has steadily eroded elements of town’s prekindergarten initiative — the signature achievement of his predecessor, Invoice de Blasio. He has blamed his choices on de Blasio’s reliance on dwindling federal stimulus {dollars} and what he describes as mismanagement of the logistics of this system.
Lander is now becoming a member of a bid to reverse $170 million in cuts to the early childhood schooling program days earlier than the municipal funds is due. This subject stays a sticking level between Adams and the Metropolis Council.
The comptroller isn’t the one Adams rival taking over this subject.
In latest months, Brooklyn State Sen. Zellnor Myrie and former Comptroller Scott Stringer, two Democrats weighing major challenges to Adams, have been capitalizing on voter dissatisfaction with the mayor’s fiscal method.
“New Yorkers deserve management that can make our metropolis extra livable and extra inexpensive — not dangerous and pointless funds cuts,” Myrie wrote in an e mail to supporters late Tuesday afternoon. “That’s why I’m exploring a run for mayor, and it’s why I’m hoping to your help at this time.”
Stringer wrote in a fundraising plea in Could, “Once I’m mayor, we received’t be slicing our children and shortchanging our households. We are going to fund pre-k, 3k, and after-school. However I would like your assist.”
United Federation of Academics President Michael Mulgrew, who typically butts heads with Adams, endorsed Stringer in 2021 and even urged union members to not rank Adams on their ballots.
Lander, who received a aggressive major for an open seat in 2021, has emerged as a measured critic of Adams. The mayor as soon as mocked him as “the loudest particular person within the metropolis.”
Adams, town’s second Black mayor, has a robust base of multiracial, working-class voters in his nook. However he’s turn into weak, and Lander is common with voters who weren’t with Adams within the first place.
The pre-Ok cuts might additional threaten his political standing. New Yorkers United for Little one Care, a coalition of present and would-be mother and father — which is behind the Wednesday demonstration— and left-leaning politicians, are constructing a case towards his reelection.
“I’ve not made any choices but … however there’s little question this can be a essential and urgent subject for households within the metropolis,” Lander stated within the interview.
Adams, who has attributed unfilled preschool seats to mismanagement by de Blasio, on Monday stated town has given households entry to 42,000 spots for 3-year-olds. Metropolis Corridor beforehand dedicated over $500 million to guard initiatives funded by federal stimulus {dollars}, together with a 3-Ok enlargement.
“It’s mind-boggling to me that persons are blaming us for the fiasco of the 3-Ok, pre-Ok,” he stated at a press convention within the Bronx. “We inherited a large number.”
On Tuesday, he dismissed issues that town received’t finalize its annual funds on time, saying, “I’m the pilot, co-pilot is [City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams]. We’re gonna land the airplane.”
