Community Corner

Susswein's Campaign Manager Questions Turner's Support For Pre-K

David Grill says he's worried about the institution's future

 

Another 24 hours brings another avalanche of emails and press releases from the various candidates and slates running for office in Tuesday's local election.

From David Grill, campaign manager for mayoral candidate Harvey Susswein, who is leading the For Montclair slate, comes a letter sent out to friends and supporters related to the Montclair Community Pre-K.

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An Open Letter to all Montclair Community Pre-K Parents, past and present:

As one of the founding board members of Montclair Community Pre-K and its first board president, I am distressed that one of our mayoral candidates still doesn’t ‘get it’ about the program.

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Karen Turner, who in the past has proposed closing the Montclair Community Pre-K and proposed issuing vouchers to attend underprivileged children, still plays fast and loose with the facts about the program and builds a totally misleading narrative about it. 

As recently as May 2 she said that MCPK is the most expensive program in town. This is totally false. In fact MCPK tuition is in middle of the pack. Moreover, none of the others have a sliding scale tuition based on income, and working families often find MCPK to be the LEAST expensive alternative in town. Plus MCPK deliberately caters to working parents and their hours and its cost per hour is below most if not all other programs in town. 

Ms. Turner, speaking of scholarships, was also quoted as saying “They’re all our kids. You can’t just hand pick a few.”, implying that kids needing scholarships are turned away. This is also totally false and misleading. MCPK is a Montclair program for Montclair kids, coordinated with the Montclair Public Schools. Montclair families get priority over others and scholarship subsidies go ONLY to Montclair children and they are offered to ANY Montclair family with limited means. No child gets turned away, period! No other program in town can say this.

Can someone who can’t or won’t stick to the facts about the Community Pre-K be trusted to be the ‘strong supporter’ she now claims to be?

I fear for the future of Montclair Community Pre-K in a Turner administration. One of the reasons I am supporting the For Montclair slate and volunteered to be Treasurer and Campaign Manager is that I trust these candidates with the future of the program. I trust them to keep their word that they will support the program while looking for a stable, multi-year source of funding, including the possibility of rolling it back under the Board of Education.

I urge you, on May 8, to cast your ballots for Line C, For Montclair.  Susswein, Barr, Hurlock, Springer, and Jacobson.

Regards,

David Grill


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