The New Orleans City Council took another step toward providing hundreds more low-income residents with access to early-childhood education, passing a measure Thursday that will place a new property-tax on the ballot to expand the publicly-funded program.
The council unanimously approved a 5-mill property tax measure for the April 30 ballot. If approved by voters, it would annually generate an estimated $21 million, enough to provide 1,000 additional preschool seats and cover costs associated with expanding the city’s existing network of providers.