Do you have the musical acumen and passion for toddler education to impress both Zohran Mamdani and Cardi B? The New York City mayor announced on Friday that Cardi B would judge a citywide competition of jingles, officially New York’s Best Childcare Jingle, written to promote Mamdani’s free childcare initiative for the Big Apple’s two-year-olds, which the administration is calling 2-K, similar to pre-K and 3-K for three-year-olds.
New Yorkers who think they have what it takes can submit a 15- or 30-second jingle to a special page of the NYC.gov website, which they must also post to their social media with the tags #NYC2KJingle and @nycmayor, to tell the world in a catchy and memorable way that the city will be offering free 2-K education in select neighborhoods in the fall. Once all the submissions are in on April 17, Cardi B will select five finalists, and New Yorkers will ultimately pick the winner.
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“As Cardi B says: ‘I can get ’em both. I don’t wanna choose,'” Mamdani said in a statement. “With universal childcare, New Yorkers won’t have to. For too long, families have been forced to choose between affordable care and staying in the city they love. Now, they can have both — free care in the greatest city in the world.”
In a video promoting the contest, Mamdani asks Cardi B what she thinks of free childcare. “I feel like free childcare is very important,” she says. “Sometimes, us women, we can’t really go forward because we don’t have nobody to help us take care of our kids.”
The initial neighborhoods where 2-K will be available (the Bronx’s Fordham, Manhattan’s Washington Heights, Brooklyn’s Canarsie, and Southeast Queens) have special connections to Cardi B, who was born in the Bronx and has Dominican and Caribbean roots like many of the people who live there. The initial launch will be open to 2,000 children. The rollout foreshadows Mamdani’s plan for universal childcare, one of the platforms he campaigned on during the election. The program will be available to New Yorkers regardless of ZIP code, income, or immigration status.
Enrollment for 2-K will run from June 2 to June 26. Families will find out if their children made placement in August, and the school term begins in September.
“The launch of 2-K marks an important milestone for early childhood education in New York City,” the city’s schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels, said in a statement. “Expanding access to early care and learning for two-year-olds helps children build strong foundations for language, social development, and learning, while supporting families during an important stage of their child’s development. This is an important step as we continue building a stronger, more connected birth-to-five early childhood system for New York City families.”
Steve Cohen*
