New York City’s top official in charge of early childhood education, Kara Ahmed, is exiting from her role in the city’s infrastructure after years of criticism over the ways in which she has handled the management of pre-K and 3-K. These criticisms grew even louder and more vehement when recently paired with the Adams administration’s unfulfilled promise that every parent who wanted a seat in the popular programs would receive one.
Upon announcing she was leaving this past Tuesday, Ahmed wrote to her colleagues that, “It is with a heart full of emotions that I am announcing my transition. The work we have accomplished together, all in service to children and in partnership with their families, has created the necessary foundation to stabilize, strengthen, and sustain our early childhood education system. The children, their families, and the educators across this grand portfolio deserve no less.”
When initially brought on board in the position, Ahmed claimed she was thrilled to take on the role and that she would seek “to elevate the importance of early childhood education on a national level.” Despite this early verve and ambition, her time in the role was rocky from the get-go. While not necessarily due to her own actions, delayed payments to educational providers early in the Adams administration pushed some to the brink of closure, and the blame fell solely at Ahmed’s feet.
In fall 2022, the United Federation of Teachers Union voted “no confidence” in Ahmed’s leadership, seeking to have her removed from the role. Through it all, though, the school’s Chancellor, David Banks, praised Ahmed’s efforts and defended her publically. Banks was quoted numerous times as saying that the dysfunction was something that Ahmed had inherited from former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office and that she had done her best to right those wrongs.
Simultaneously to these problems, sitting Mayor Adams implemented cuts to early childhood education while pumping the brakes on a de Blasio-era plan to expand 3-K, noting expansion efforts depended on federal funds that were actively drying up. Adams and Banks instead claimed they were focused on making sure the supply of 3-K seats matched the demand. Their new plan would see seats shifting when there were too many in one neighborhood and not enough in another.
All in all, Adams proposed $170 million in further cuts to early education in the past year alone. Obviously, this sparked even further outrage and ignited more protests from parents and advocates. The fate of 3-K became a centerpiece of budget negotiations with the City Council, and regardless of her actual involvement in these decisions, Ahmed’s legacy was at the center of it all.
Ahmed’s departure comes in the middle of mounting unrest over the sheer cost of child care in the city, which has gotten so high that many compare it to paying for a secondary apartment. According to local financial experts, the vast majority of families pay between $14,000 and $20,000 a year for care for a child under the age of five.
For her part, Rebecca Bailin of New Yorkers United for Child Care was critical of Ahmed but insisted that more blame should be laid at Mayor Adams’ feet.
“This administration definitely gets an F, and that includes Kara Ahmed, for how they’ve been defunding and deprioritizing universal 3-K,” Bailin said. “My instinct is that with her or without her, it won’t matter unless there’s prioritization from the top. It depends on how much the mayor cares about these programs.”
