New York City has paid almost $100 million to rent empty preschool classrooms, according to a shocking new report.
The New York Post reported Monday that the city has paid $99.3 million over the last five years for rent and utilities on 28 buildings for preschool classrooms acquired through part of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “universal” preschool push. The spending on the empty classrooms has both former officials and NYC residents upset about the Big Apple’s latest use of taxpayer dollars.
“I don’t think it’s corruption. It’s incompetence,” a former city Department of Education official told the Post.
The official added that despite “such a significant need for pre-K seats,” many of the classrooms were empty because they were made available in areas without verifying demand. Meanwhile, other parts of the city have long wait lists for preschool seats.
The Post reported that de Blasio’s push for the“3-K For All” program, which provides full-day early childhood education for 3-year-olds, led to a mad dash for renting buildings that have yet to be used.
De Blasio blamed the empty classrooms on his successor, former Mayor Eric Adams, saying that “during my administration, we never had a problem filling Pre-K and 3-K seats because we did lots of parent-friendly outreach.”
“Sadly, the Adams administration ended those efforts and took a step backwards on early childhood education,” he told the Post.
For his part, Adams said that he “inherited a system with thousands of empty early childhood seats,” and he focused on “stabilizing providers and increasing enrollment, rather than simply expanding capacity.”
Six of the vacant sites are expected to be opened up in the fall by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
New York City’s Department of Education said that it was “continuously evaluating all vacant sites for the most responsible use based on site readiness and community need” and that “all plans will be shared publicly once timelines and approvals are confirmed.”
One of the empty sites is at Union Turnpike in Queens and has cost the city $10.8 million, according to the report.
“They realized [afterward that] it wasn’t a good location. … If they didn’t think the need was there, why did they pick the site in the first place?” the former Education Department official said.
Nearby business owner Larry Mottola told the Post that it was troubling that the government would waste money on unused buildings.
“They had beautiful classrooms, a stainless steel kitchen [and] there’s a beautiful playground around back,” he said. “It’s bothersome, [that] they would waste that kind of money for four years.”
Another parent said that it was frustrating that the government selected sites where there was no demand.
“It feels like a real misstep that we’re not even utilizing the space that’s being paid for,” said Jessica Setton. “De Blasio had good intention, terrible execution.”
