Video, B-Roll, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Highlights Historic Budget Investments in Early Childhood Education During Visit to Long Island School

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul highlighted FY 2023 Enacted Budget investments in early childhood education during a visit today to the Chestnut Street School in West Hempstead on Long Island OR in West Hempstead in Nassau County. The Enacted Budget provides an additional $125 million to expand access to full-day pre-K for four-year-old children, creating approximately 17,500 additional pre-K seats statewide. Of this $125 million, $100 million was allocated by formula and $25 million will be awarded through a competitive process administered by the State Education Department.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

B-ROLL of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you, Principal Tripp for your vision for bringing these incredible children an opportunity to have their lives transformed. You in conjunction with our really visionary school superintendent, Daniel Rehman. I want to thank him for over a decade of saying, we need to have pre-K for the children of West Hempstead.

Also again, the school board, a critical role. Karen Brohm, the board of education president here. Everybody involved in the whole school ecosystem. I just had a fun time. I wish it had lasted longer. I made some new friends. At the very first, the inaugural class of the pre-K program right here.

These children literally won the lottery in a sense that before this past January, 50 percent of the children in this school district entered kindergarten without ever having exposure to any kind of learning. That's not fair to them. That's not fair to their families, never to have this even available to them.

We saw a real need in our budget and I want to thank our partners in government, Senator Todd Kaminsky and Assemblymember Judy Griffin for bringing these concerns to Albany. And saying we have to work together to create these opportunities for children in their district, but all over the state and particularly here in Long Island.

This school is in the process of build out right now. That inaugural class will be joined by four other classrooms. We have to build the classrooms, you have to hire the teachers, but now there is so much energy and excitement around the experience that I just saw unfold in a classroom down the hall where I was greeted by the most bright, energetic children I've ever seen. Four and five year olds who will have this classroom experience to build upon when they get through the summer and enter next year as kindergartners. They will have an advantage. But for these investments, and the leadership team here locally that made this happen, that was never available to them. So what we did in our budget was provide an additional $125 million to support the creation of pre-K programs for schools like these, knowing that that money is there, they are now well-poised to open this up to many other families. So that allows us to create 17,500 seats statewide. But right here on Long Island, over $27 million investment in schools like these.

So to Principal Tripp and your entire team here at Chestnut Street School, you embraced it. So what does that mean? Over 70 children whose parents struggled with activities for them while they may be at work, and knowing that their children are not getting ahead compared to other districts where this is universal, those lives are forever changed in a positive way. So I thank you.

I mentioned the parents. This is not a babysitting situation, but what it does is allow parents the peace of mind, to know that when they go off and work hard and bring home that paycheck to support their families, that their children are in a nurturing, learning place with caring adults surrounding them. That is the best outcome these children could ask for or their parents.

So I thank everyone involved in making this happen, but also Long Island, as we know, is a very expensive place to live. Got great quality of life, like outstanding school districts like this. And I say, thank you again to the Superintendent and the Principal for offering this first rate quality education.

But you know, families are struggling so much. They're taking it on the chin, the cost of everything from gas, to groceries, to milk, to bread, to rent. It is just taking a toll on people. So again, to offer for 70 families, the freedom from worry about having to pay for childcare services is really just going to help lift them up. And we have to do more. We have to continue investing in these opportunities.

We also talk about the cost of everything going up. That's why with my team here, the legislative team and our leaders in Albany, we said at this time, at this moment of time, when people are struggling, let's give people a break.

That's why we announced $2.2 billion in property tax relief, literally checks going back to people. And we said, let's get it out as soon as possible. People are struggling at this very moment. So I thank our leaders from our Assembly district, our Senate district for making this happen.

We also said, what else can we do? We really were pushing ourselves. We now are going to have an expert at middle class tax cut, and that means more money in people's pockets. And that's going to give over 6 million people additional relief.

We mentioned the high cost of gas. I wish there was more to do, but I looked at it and I said, with our colleagues in government, we now collect sales tax as do the counties on every gallon of gas sold. What if even for a six-month period between now and the end of the year, we can at least suspend that? So that's just more money back in people's pockets.

And I had mentioned the high cost of childcare and why so many, it's unattainable for so many families. We also said, $7 billion is now on the table for the next four years to open up many more slots to give subsidies for families. The subsidies now with the average benefit is $9,000 per child. That's money that the parents don't have to come up with and recognizing that, we continue investing in this.

So why am I here at a school? Because I'll never forget my children's first days at preschool. It's a time of anxiety for parents under any circumstances that loss of connection with your baby who's now turning into this 3, 4, 5 year old, and they seem to be changing before your eyes. But every parent is hardwired from the second that baby is in their arms to do whatever they can to protect them and make sure that they have the best outcome in life.

That's not just the American Dream. That is the New York Dream that we invested in with these initiatives. And there's so much more to do. So I'm very proud to be here today, again, with great partners in government. And I want to tell everybody once again, never forget who we're investing in. We're investing in the children down the hall, the children whose voices and laughter will still be filling these classrooms.

That's how you change lives. One child at a time.