Ravitch Likes Pre-K Focus, Not the Politics

Expanded pre-kindergarten in New York has the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, although a great deal of the attention has been paid to the the differences between the governor’s proposal to use state money to phase in programs and de Blasio’s push to fund them locally by raising taxes on the wealthy.

Richard Ravitch, the former lieutenant governor and co-chair of the State Budget Crisis Task Force, said that he is delighted by the backing of the two men, given the overall decline in pre-K funding across the country. But Ravitch argued that the focus on politics is a distraction.

“I think the question is, what’s the best way of administering it, what is the cost,” Ravitch said in an interview that aired on Wednesday on CUNY TV’s City Talk. “And the secondary question is, what tax base ought to pay for it—the federal tax base, the state tax base, or the local tax base? That’s the way to analyze this.”