{"id":379722,"date":"2026-10-22T14:25:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T14:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/379722\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T14:25:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T14:25:04","slug":"do-new-yorkers-think-hochul-or-blakeman-will-tackle-education-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/379722\/","title":{"rendered":"Do New Yorkers think Hochul or Blakeman will tackle education better?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NY \"NY NY Governor Race Tightens: Siena pollster breaks down Hochul vs. Blakeman<\/a> <\/p>\n

A new Siena College poll shows the New York governor’s race narrowing to single digits. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman 50% to 41%. Siena pollster Steve Greenberg analyzes the new polling data and break down key issues driving voter behavior in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NEW YORK – Nassau County Executive and Republican nominee Bruce Blakeman<\/a> has a very different approach to education than New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

FOX 5 NY is your home on Election Night. Bookmark our Election Results page<\/a> to track in real-time, and tune into our Election Night coverage live right here on fox5ny.com<\/a> and FOX LOCAL New York<\/a> as the night unfolds. Coverage begins at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

Here’s a breakdown of where and how they differ.<\/p>\n

Hochul’s initiatives on bolstering education <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

One of the governor’s major education initiatives is one that she has taken on with Mayor Zohran Mamdani \u00e2\u0080\u0093 instituting a new 2-K program for the city<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Mamdani, \"Mamdani, <\/p>\n

Mamdani and Hochul announced<\/a> the city’s first phase of their broader universal child care plan in March, announcing free child care for 2-year-olds in these neighborhoods:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Washington Heights and InwoodEast Brooklyn, including Canarsie, Brownsville and Ocean HillFordham and KingsbridgeOzone Park and the Rockaways <\/p>\n

By the numbers:<\/p>\n

Hochul pledged $73 million of state funding to back the program, but the investment could grow to $425 million as it expands to more parts of the city in 2027.<\/p>\n

The governor also established a “bell-to-bell” cellphone ban<\/a> for state schools, which went into effect at the start of the 2025 school year.<\/p>\n

\"NY \"NY <\/p>\n

She also touts on her campaign website<\/a> that her Universal Free School Meals<\/a> program provides nearly 3 million children with free breakfast and lunch.<\/p>\n

Blakeman’s push to get \u00e2\u0080\u0098back to basics\u00e2\u0080\u0099 <\/p>\n

The other side:<\/p>\n

In contrast to the governor’s more progressive approach to education, Blakeman is calling for a return to “the basics.”<\/p>\n

“We are failing our kids right now\u00e2\u0080\u00a6” the Republican nominee says in the video above, explaining that he believes education “shouldn’t be biased or with a point of view.”<\/p>\n

Blakeman has also gone after Mamdani’s approach to education, explicitly calling out<\/a> the mayor’s proposal to phase out the Gifted and Talented program<\/a> in city elementary schools.<\/p>\n

The Source: This article includes information from several government official websites, both candidates’ campaign websites and interviews conducted by FOX 5 NY reporters.<\/p>\n

2026 Elections<\/a>Politics<\/a>New York<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NY Governor Race Tightens: Siena pollster breaks down Hochul vs. Blakeman A new Siena College poll shows the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[50078,75,84,83,9,24,12,56,63,87,618],"class_list":["post-379722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-elections-2026","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379722","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=379722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}