{"id":152768,"date":"2026-03-04T19:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/152768\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:39:07","slug":"staten-islanders-fume-over-mamdanis-free-2-k-pilot-program-snub-the-forgotten-borough-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/152768\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Islanders fume over Mamdani\u2019s free 2-K pilot program snub: \u2018The forgotten borough again\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Staten Island parents are fuming over Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s decision to leave Staten Island out of his <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/03\/us-news\/taxpayers-will-fork-over-more-than-36k-per-child-under-nyc-free-2-k-pilot-program\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lofty free 2-K pilot program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday the five city school districts that will be eligible to apply for the 2,000 spots launching in the fall \u2014 but left out the \u201cforgotten borough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know it\u2019s like the lottery but to get shut out? Not even a chance? What\u2019s the matter, too many registered Republicans here?\u201d seethed Diane, a mother of three who declined to give her last name, outside of the Hylan Daycare Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs that why? It\u2019s sure not because we don\u2019t have any low-income parents who need help on Staten Island.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38673177\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/districts-18-23-canarsie-brownsville-122704992.jpg\" alt=\"Mayor Zohran Mamdani announcing the communities that will be part of the city's free 2-K pilot program alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels on March 3, 2026.\" class=\"wp-image-38673177\"  \/>Mayor Zohran Mamdani announcing the communities that will be part of the city\u2019s free 2-K pilot program alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels on March 3, 2026. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>Borough President Vito Fossella and City Councilman Frank Morano, both Republicans, slammed Mamdani for leaving Staten Island out of the program for city 2-year-olds \u2014 despite every other borough being represented, including two school districts in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have young, hardworking families here, just like any other borough,\u201d Fossella said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf help is going to be offered for free, these families sure could use it, as they work to make their kids\u2019 future the best it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hylan Daycare owner Frosina Agushi said she was not surprised by the snub.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are the forgotten borough again,\u201d she told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staten Island parents are fuming over Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s decision to leave Staten Island out of his lofty&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[57,9,24,63,134,136,135,58,82],"class_list":["post-152768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}