TALES OUT OF PRESCHOOL.(need for universal preschool education)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 02-DEC-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

The scandal at the 92nd Street Y Nursery School--an institution that anxious plutocratic parents in New York City believe will facilitate their progeny's acceptance to Harvard and teach toddler barons social-climbing skills when they have barely learned to walk--is a reminder of how far a C.E.O. will go to keep a valued employee happy. Jack Grubman, formerly a top analyst at Salomon Smith Barney, the investment-banking division of Citigroup, and the father of young twins, sought the help of Sanford Weill, Citigroup's chief executive, in placing his children at the Y. Grubman later described a satisfying transaction in an e-mail to a friend: he had raised his rating of stock in A.T. & T., a potential Citigroup client, as a favor to Weill, and the Grubman twins appeared on the preschool's rolls. Citigroup, in the meantime, pledged to donate a million...

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