What We Owe Our Children

October 11, 2012 | Daily News

I stirred up controversy last week when I proposed a plan to better educate our kids — and called on well-off New Yorkers to help pay for it.

The plan itself is straightforward: Start kids’ education earlier and help them learn longer. This is where ambitious school systems everywhere are moving, and with good cause.

According to the federal Department of Education, 60% of the jobs in the 21st century will require skills held by just 20% of today’s workforce.

China will soon enroll 70% of its children in three years of pre-school to build basic skills. And schools abroad and here in the U.S. are adding hundreds of hours to the academic year to better prepare their young people for the modern economy.

New York City simply can’t afford to be left behind.

Under my plan, New York City would provide full-day pre-kindergarten for every child who needs it — something 50,000 of the 68,000 kids eligible don’t get today.

And to help our young people stay on the right path and firm up their academics, I am proposing innovative after-school programs to extend the school day for more than two-thirds of city middle schoolers from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Read more