Former U.S. President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Learning Through Play Pre-K Early Childhood Education Center in the South Bronx on Saturday, April 18, alongside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

 

The two read a children’s book to a group of toddlers and also took time to meet with some families. The two leaders also discussed the mayor’s vision for the City, and “the importance of giving New York’s Cutest the strongest start possible,” in the form of the mayor’s roll-out of free childcare.

 

The former president later said of the visit, “Great spending time with New York City’s Cutest. And thanks to @nycmayor for giving me an excuse to break out my best ‘Wheels on the Bus.'”

As reported, in what was described as a major step toward universal childcare for children aged six weeks to five years of age, Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on March 3 the first four communities to receive free 2-K seats this fall. Included among them is The Bronx’s School District 10, which covers Fordham, Belmont, Norwood, Marble Hill, Morris Heights, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Van Cortlandt Village and Kingsbridge, as well as parts of Kingsbridge Heights, Bedford Park, Mount Hope, Claremont- Bathgate & East Tremont.

 

To highlight the program’s roll-out, the mayor paid a visit to Bronx Community College’s early childhood center in University Heights on March 6 and later spoke to Norwood News about the program. City officials said the 2-K program is a cornerstone of the mayor’s universal childcare initiative and will provide free childcare for two-year-olds in New York City to any family who needs it, regardless of zip code, income or immigration status. They said the program will launch with 2,000 free seats this fall and expand to full universality within four years.

Meanwhile, the former president had previously visited Bedford Park’s Lehman College in 2015 to promote My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBKA), an offshoot of a similar White House initiative of the same name which helps steer young men toward a life of prosperity by focusing on early childhood education.

 

During Mamdani’s mayoral general election campaign, as reported, he was asked what was discussed during a then-recent call he reportedly had with Obama, to whom Mamdani has been compared. The mayor was born in Kampala, Uganda, into an Indian family. His father is academic, Mahmood Mamdani, and his mother, filmmaker, Mira Nair, the director of “Monsoon Wedding,” among other movies. Obama’s father is from Nyang’oma Kogelo in neighboring Kenya in Central East Africa, a 6-hour drive from Kampala.

 

“That call happened soon after the primary,” Mamdani said at the time. “It was a call that I was honored to receive, and the contents of it were focused on the campaign that we ran, the importance of hope in our politics, and the ways in which we govern to deliver on that. The lessons of that conversation are ones that I hold close to me as we continue to build this campaign to win the general election, and it was an honor to receive that time and those reflections from the former president.”

 

Watch a short video of the mayor’s and the former president’s latest visit to the South Bronx early childhood center on Saturday courtesy of New York City Kopp here, and another courtesy of Emma G. Fitzsimmons here.