Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Thousands of parents in New York City will have access to free childcare after Gov. Kathy Hochul joined forces with Mayor Zohran Mamdani Jan. 8 to roll out the first steps of his campaign promise to make childcare universal throughout the city, Stephen Prager noted at CommonDreams (1/8).
The governor announced $1.7 billion in this year’s budget that will seek to create childcare access for 100,000 more children, part of a plan to spend $4.5 billion on childcare across the state during this fiscal year.
She said she is committed to “fully fund the first two years of the city’s implementation” of Mamdani’s program, which he hopes will one day provide free childcare to kids between 6 weeks and 5 years old.
According to the childcare marketplace website TrustedCare, the average cost of daycare for children in New York City ranges from $2,000 to $4,200 per month, depending on the child’s age and schedule.
“This is something every family can agree on,” Hochul said at a press conference Thursday at a YMCA in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. “The cost of childcare is too damn high.”
The governor and mayor will begin by increasing funding for the city’s existing 3K program, created under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, which extended free pre-K, which was already available to all 4-year-olds, to 3-year-olds when spots are available. Hochul said she and Mamdani will seek to “fix” the program and make it truly universal.
After initially promising to make it available to all 3-year-olds, Mamdani’s predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, instead slashed funding for it and other early childhood education programs, which children’s advocates said drove kids out of the public school system and left many unable to find seats in nearby areas.
“We stand here today because of the young New Yorkers who were no longer willing to accept that the joy of beginning a family had to be paired with the heartbreak of moving away from a city that they have always loved,” Mamdani said.
In addition to making that program universal, Hochul and Mamdani are rolling out a program offering childcare for 2-year-olds, known as “2 Care,” which will first be available in “high-need areas” before being rolled out to all parents by 2029.
Mamdani has estimated that the plan to make pre-K fully universal will cost about $6 billion per year, with funding made more challenging by the fact that President Donald Trump recently cut off federal childcare subsidies to states, including $3 billion to New York, amid a manufactured panic about rampant fraud. Hochul has said the state is mulling its legal options to fight the funding freeze.
In the meantime, she plans to spend $73 million in the first year to cover the cost and creation of 2 Care, and $425 million in the second year as more children enroll.
While the source of the funds was not immediately clear, Hochul has said that money for the initial phase of the rollout will come from revenue already allocated by the legislature and not from any tax hikes in the coming year.
