Advocates push to make pre-K parity a budget issue this year

By Eliza Shapiro

3:24 p.m. | Mar. 9, 2016

Pre-Kindergarten and day care providers took to the steps of City Hall on Wednesday to call for salary and benefit parity for employees at pre-K sites in community-based organizations.

The issue has been a perpetual thorn in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s side, even as his universal pre-K program has expanded. Advocates say they are considering work stoppages if the city does not address the salary disparities in the executive budget this year. Providers said Wednesday that some sites may be forced to close if the salary issue is not fixed.

Austin Finan, a spokesman for de Blasio, said in a statement that salary changes have to be worked out between pre-K providers and their various union representatives.

“This is a contract negotiation between the providers and the workers’ unions. The City is engaged in those discussions and supportive of the negotiations underway — but this is a collective bargaining process between the providers and the unions.”