Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Advocacy Group Supporting NYC Pre-K Expansion Raised $1.76 Million
An advocacy group that helped NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's push for expanded pre-kindergarten received its largest donations from unions, a political action committee and the Rockefeller Family Fund.
The top five contributors to the $1.76 million fund include three unions: the American Federation of Teachers ($350,000), 1199 SEIU ($250,000) and UNITE HERE! ($200,000). The others were NY Progress, a political action committee union, which donated $175,000, the Rockefeller Family Fund ($250,000) and Eric Schmidt, executive director of Google, who gave $50,000 through the "Big Hen Group LLC
In another news article, Crain's New York Business reports that the grant from AFT, the parent union of the United Federation of Teachers, was made just weeks before UFT's contract agreement with NYC….