Model Inner City Preschool Set to Close; Preschool Funding Crisis Looming

July 7, 2004 -- Officials at the Puerto Rican Action Board (PRAB) in New Brunswick, New Jersey announced plans to close their preschool program in the city, serving 225 children, because of insufficient funding and state bureaucratic guidelines that are strangling community preschools.

Notices were given to teachers at the three PRAB locations – 18 Drift Street, 74 Drift Street, and 287 Townsend Street. Approximately 50 employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closings. PRAB projects a deficit of $384,000 in its $2.7 million preschool budget during the fiscal year starting July 1.

PRAB Executive Director Guillermo Beytagh-Maldonado laid the blame for the preschool closing squarely on the shoulders of Education Commissioner William Librera. After extended negotiations involving coalitions of community preschools, DOE has refused to budge in its approach to contracting with nearly 500 community organizations.

"For the last year, we have met with more pencil-pushing bureaucrats than I care to remember," Beytagh-Maldonado said at the press conference. "Time after time we have tried to explain how their budget guidelines are unfair to community preschool programs. They do not allow community educators to accurately list their costs. What has been their response? LET US HOLD ANOTHER MEETING."

Later on he noted: "The State Department of Education is Meeting us to death. We are running a large multi-service agency here serving the poor and voiceless of several counties in New Jersey. I refuse to bankrupt this agency, because the state Department of Education refuses to meet its Constitutionally-mandated responsibilities."

Beytagh-Maldonado observed that the closing of the PRAB preschool program is part of a larger statewide crisis in preschool funding. "The contracts proposed by the state Department of Education for the coming school year will strangle more and more community preschool providers.

Many of the smaller community preschools are just now coming to this realization. Many of them are running deficits just like us. The Department of Education's guidelines will eventually force the closing of dozens of community-based preschools across the state."

As a result of a series of state Supreme Court rulings (the Abbott versus Burke decisions), economically disadvantaged districts such as New Brunswick must provide preschool programs. The decision requires the state Commissioner of Education to provide adequate funding for Abbott preschool programs. Approximately 70 percent of preschool children in the Abbott Districts are educated in community preschools such as those operated by PRAB.

In addition to Beytagh-Maldonado, other speakers at the press conference included, parents and teachers from PRAB, and representatives of other community preschool programs.

Contact:
Daniel Santo Pietro – (732) 828-7606



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