NYC shells out $100 MIILLION in taxpayer funds for empty preschools

Preschools sitting empty in New York City have cost taxpayers nearly $100 million in rent and utilities. The city has been paying to rent out over two dozen buildings that were meant to be preschools, but years later are still yet to open.

Paying rent at the facilities has tallied up to $99.3 million and some of the blame has been placed on former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's preschool expansion project, per the New York Post. A former city Department of Education official told the outlet, “I don’t think it’s corruption. It’s incompetence."

During the de Blasio administration, there were 47 "initiative projects" that were part of the former mayor's "3-K For All" program, which gives pre-k away for free for all 3-year-olds. The school buildings have been devoid of students for years since he left office.

The de Blasio administration had earmarked $400 million to build or renovate existing buildings set apart for 3,800 3-K slots across 28 different locations. Those locations, however, were supposed to open up between 2020 and 2025. Despite some of the buildings being repurposed for charter schools, the majority of the locations are empty and none of them have 3-K seats for children in the Big Apple.

The former school official who spoke to the Post added in comments about an unopened location on Union Turnpike in Queens, “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 location was estimated to cost $10.8 million and was placed in an orthodox Jewish community in Queens. The families surrounding the school were likely to put their children into a religious school setting instead of the public program.

De Blasio told the Post, “Sadly, the Adams administration ended those efforts and took a step backwards on early childhood education," but says that demand for preschools will likely increase with Mamdani.

Adams said he “inherited a system with thousands of empty early childhood seats,” and chose to prioritize “stabilizing providers and increasing enrollment, rather than simply expanding capacity.”

With the locations sitting empty, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is looking to utilize the space as he is moving forward with his own administration's pre-k expansion.