Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo claimed credit score Monday for the creation of New York Metropolis’s common pre-Ok program, an initiative that’s extensively seen because the brainchild of his longtime political nemesis, ex-Mayor Invoice de Blasio.
Cuomo, who’s operating as an unbiased candidate in November’s election for New York Metropolis mayor, staked out his place throughout an look on WNYC after being requested if he agrees de Blasio spearheaded the 2014 launch of the favored early childhood training program.
“No, he didn’t,” replied Cuomo, who as governor continuously clashed with de Blasio. “The state did it — I did it.”
The town’s common pre-Ok program, which offers free full-day childcare for each 4-year-old within the 5 boroughs, bought off the bottom in September 2014 after de Blasio made it the principle goal of his early days as mayor.
Administered by the town Division of Schooling, this system’s launch was undergirded by a hefty tranche of funding included in that yr’s state finances, that means Albany performed a key position in getting the initiative throughout the end line. Nevertheless, this system itself was proposed and designed by de Blasio’s administration, and the previous mayor has lengthy mentioned Albany, together with then-Gov. Cuomo, solely got here round to backing a state funding enhance after relentless advocacy from his Metropolis Corridor crew.
Requested for readability on Cuomo’s radio feedback, his spokesman Wealthy Azzopardi mentioned the ex-governor was referring to a small scale pre-Ok pilot program he launched on the state stage in 2013 earlier than de Blasio turned mayor. Azzopardi additionally took a shot at de Blasio for initially pushing Albany for a state-level tax enhance on the rich to bankroll the common pre-Ok program.
“His point was that de Blasio wanted a tax increase for the sake of a tax increase, and Gov. Cuomo was able to build upon the pilot program he launched prior to de Blasio’s election and deliver those pre-K slots not only to the city, but also the rest of the state with existing resources,” Azzopardi mentioned.
De Blasio didn’t instantly return a request for remark Monday.
Mayor Invoice de Blasio and Colleges Chancellor Richard Carranza announce 3,257 households are receiving affords to free, full-day, high-quality 3-Ok for All throughout six neighborhood faculty districts, Could 23, 2018. (Ed Reed / Mayoral Images Workplace)
Some de Blasio defenders stepped in to accuse Cuomo of rewriting historical past in gentle of his radio remarks.
Metropolis Council Finance Committee Chairman Justin Brannan, who as a senior metropolis Division of Schooling official helped with the rollout of common pre-Ok in 2014, mentioned Cuomo’s feedback made him really feel like his “head is going to explode.”
“And I built the Verrazzano Bridge with my bare hands,” Brannan added.
“Andrew Cuomo lives in his own reality. Facts don’t matter,” Ana Maria Archila, the New York Working Households Celebration’s co-director, piled on in a submit on X. “He makes up stories and then just expects people to fall in line.”
In a press convention held this previous April to have a good time a funding enhance for the pre-Ok program, de Blasio hinted on the grueling battle his administration bought into with Cuomo’s administration in 2014.
“I went to Albany, and I found a door that was closed quite often and a lack of support — and we had to fight and fight and fight to finally get what our children deserved,” he mentioned at that press convention. “You either stand for early childhood education or you don’t, and I just think everyone’s record should be remembered.”
The 2014 feud is reemerging at a time Cuomo faces a deja vu of types over insurance policies associated to taxation and childcare — albeit from a really completely different angle.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor who’s polling as the favourite to win November’s election, has proposed vastly increasing free childcare within the metropolis so that youngsters between the ages of 6 weeks and 5 years are entitled to it. To be able to fund such a drastic growth, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has proposed rising taxes on companies and millionaires.
Cuomo and different critics of Mamdani, together with Mayor Adams, who’s additionally operating as an unbiased in November’s election, have argued Mamdani’s proposals are unrealistic, saying, particularly, that there’s no approach Gov. Hochul and state lawmakers will conform to tax hikes subsequent yr.
In his WNYC look, Cuomo — who raised taxes on millionaires in 2021 amid stress from Democrats within the state Legislature — reiterated his perception that Mamdani wouldn’t have the ability to safe any tax hikes in Albany in 2026.
“That is not going to happen,” mentioned Cuomo, who resigned as governor in August 2021 amid sexual {and professional} misconduct accusations he denies.
With Cayla Bamberger
Initially Revealed: July 28, 2025 at 2:17 PM EDT
