Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan to Make N.Y. Child Care Universal

[ancianita]

Source: The New York Times

New York is poised to vastly expand free and low-cost child care for families across the state over the next several years, and to put New York City on track to become the first city in the United States to provide free universal child care.

On Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood together to announce a plan that would begin by expanding child care options for nearly 100,000 young children, putting the mayor on a path toward realizing the most ambitious and costly promise of his campaign and handing him a significant political victory barely a week into his term.

In proposing to spend $4.5 billion on child care in the upcoming fiscal year, Ms. Hochul underscored how the lack of affordable child care has, over the last few years, transformed from a back-burner policy debate into an urgent political concern...

The State Legislature will still have to approve Ms. Hochul’s funding requests, although her strategy of using existing state funds rather than raising taxes significantly increases the chances that lawmakers will sign off.



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/nyregion/mamdani-hochul-child-care.html

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More at non paywall https://archive.ph/7LQve

[kerouac2]

1. What a huge difference this will make to so many

I think the free pre k and free school lunches here in cny are great too.

[ancianita]

2. AND NYC being the first city -- and the biggest city -- will help other blue states' big cities do the same, such that

U.S. cities can become family friendly havens, as savings on child care costs can be applied to other essential costs of living. These families will actually be good PR for the friends and families elsewhere in the country, so that tourism grows American big cities. Good leadership makes America's cities economic engines.

And cities will be one less prejudiced stereotype for Republicans to use to divide Americans with, or scare their voters with.