Philadelphia's Pre-K Push Is Underway
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney's administration is laying the groundwork for his big pre-kindergarten push.
Philadelphia's pre-K push now has its own website, a very rudimentary page on the new alpha site the city is testing. It does no more than let parents, providers or volunteers send contact information and questions to the administration but Kenney's education director Otis Hackney says that's important.
"I'll give you a great example. In January, there was a partial budget passed by the state. There were 1,500 additional pre-K seats slotted for Philadelphia but there was no vehicle for parents to find out where those seats exist. We want to make sure parents have that vehicle and this is just the beginning of the options that parents will have," said Hackney.
The goal is to get 10,000 kids enrolled in publicly funded seats in the next three years. The city's share would be 6,500, at an estimated cost of $52 million, but funding -- through a tax on sugary drinks -- is still uncertain.