Framingham Mayor's Latest Education Mailer Totally Misleads on Pre-K

In the Mayor’s latest mailer there are some pretty bad mistakes relating to pre-K.

Here is an image from the mailer:

It is claimed that the Mayor helped expand pre-K by 241 slots.

In fact, the funded expansion is 110 slots, as confirmed in the FY26 FPS budget book at p. 21.

https://files.smartsites.parentsquare.com/5500/school_department_fiscal_year_2025-2026_budget_book_52725.pdf

Here is an image from that page:

In the current year only 65 of those are actually filled.

So only 65 more Framingham kids now have access to quality pre-K, not 241.

Further the claim that 3 out of 4 kindergartners arrive ready to learn because of claimed pre-K attendance, is contradicted by the fact that about 50% of kindergartners are not fluent in English.

This has been the case for a number of years as shown in data from the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE), which can be accessed here:

https://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/student.aspx?orgcode=01000000&orgtypecode=5&&fycode=2025

Here is a summary, which shows the trend of increasing English fluency problems.

The Sisitsky mailer tries to paint a rosy picture for pre-K expansion, and for the preparedness of kindergartners.

Both of its claims in this area are completely false.

The Sisitsky claim: 241 more kids have access to pre-K and 75% are 'ready to learn' i.e. fluent in English

The Truth: 65 more kids have access to pre-K and 50% are 'ready to learn' i.e. fluent in English.

The intent of the mailer is to convey to voters that pre-K is in good shape, when it is not. It is especially disturbing when 6 School Committee members put their stamp of approval on such misleading claims.

10 days before the Mayoral election Charlie Sisitsky has visited a major deception on voters. We have to do much better than this.

Vote for Geoff Epstein on November 4th.