Zoran Mamdani’s all-female transition team
These are members of New York Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani’s all-female transition team.
Rebecca Baylin pays $32,000 a year for full-day child care for her five-month-old in New York City.
This is higher than the national average, but not unusual. Many parents in the city and other parts of the country can relate, as Care.com’s 2025 Cost of Care Report found that many parents spend 22% of their household income on child care. Bailin said he couldn’t find a cheaper store within walking distance of his home.
“People are spending huge amounts of money and can’t make it work, but they don’t have a choice,” Beilin said. She is also the executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, a nonprofit organization that started organizing parents, grandparents, and other advocates for free child care in 2023. Family members told Beilin, “It’s embarrassing to talk about how much I pay for childcare because I feel like it’s my fault and that I didn’t know enough.”
Five years from now, Beilin believes New York’s child care system will look very different. She also helped create a roadmap for universal free child care not only in New York City, but throughout the state. And now that Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani has taken office, Bailin said she hopes their shared dream of free childcare will become a reality.
Mamdani won the hearts of New Yorkers with promises of a more affordable city, from free buses to lower grocery prices, from rent freezes to free child care. Because child care remains the biggest expense for most American families, other than rent, the idea of universal child care sparked interest among Big Apple residents and out-of-state people alike. According to an analysis by Child Care Aware of America, the cost of child care for two children exceeds rent in nearly every state.
But not everyone is confident in Mandani’s plan, which would require major changes to New York City’s current child care system, costing an estimated $6 billion and adding hundreds of childcare workers to meet the city’s needs. Experts say these workers are already thin and underpaid. Of course, even among those who agree that universal child care is the ultimate goal, there are disagreements about how to achieve it.
Still, some supporters say Mamdani’s election brings New York City closer than ever to free child care. It won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight. But “this is definitely a policy that could happen,” said Alison Silkowski, senior policy adviser at New America’s New Practice Lab, a liberal think tank based in Washington, D.C.
“For the first time, the stars of politics seem to be pretty much on the same page,” Silkowski said.
Experts say New York could have free child care within five years. But who will pay for it?
Child care policy experts say that if all goes well, New York state could establish free child care infrastructure across the state within about five years.
Silkowski estimates it will cost New York City $6 billion and the state more than $14 billion. Experts agree that the city and state need to work together to establish universal child care for all New Yorkers. Marina Marcoux-O’Malley of the Alliance for Quality Education said it would likely include adjustments to the state’s tax system and higher taxes on corporations and the ultra-wealthy. Cities and states could also require employers to pay for child care, Silkowski said.
Achieving universal free child care will depend on Mandani’s ability to continue working well with New York Governor Cathy Hochul. And recently, Hochul put the brakes on another of Mamdani’s campaign promises, which is to make buses free of charge.
Still, Mr. Hochul has publicly said he supports universal free child care and has invested significant amounts of state money in recent years to expand child care subsidies, said Mr. Silkowski, who was Mr. Hochul’s assistant policy director.
Hochul’s team did not respond to USA TODAY’s questions about whether he would be open to adjusting state taxes to raise revenue for universal child care.
Marco-O’Malley believes Hochul could be New York’s biggest obstacle to universal free child care.
“The governor has said publicly many times that he will not consider increasing revenue,” Marco O’Malley said. “And it’s a little contradictory to say you support an agenda…and then say you don’t want to increase revenue.”
Silkowski said there is a lot that Mamdani can do on its own next year in terms of identifying funding to add child care seats to the city budget and waive co-pays for child care vouchers. But ultimately the city will need to partner with the state.
“We’re really concerned about, ‘How are we going to pay for this?'” Beilin said. But she argues that the city can no longer afford to not pay childcare fees. “We’re losing our tax base because people are fleeing New York. We’re losing workers because people can’t work or have to cut their hours. They can’t put down roots, they can’t buy homes, they can’t pay off their debts.”
New York will need to expand universal child care. Advocates disagree on who should get access first.
In 2024, about 174,000 children out of 104,000 households in New York state will receive child care assistance, according to the state. A combination of federal, state, and local funds contribute to child care assistance programs.
Subsidy programs will need to be expanded in the coming years to ensure universal access to free childcare. That means some families who don’t currently have free child care will be able to do so by this time next year, Silkowski said.
But child care advocates are divided over who should gain access first.
Bailin proposed an age-based expansion process to add more families to the program, starting with preschool and continuing through toddlers. She proposes strengthening the city’s universal preschool program by first improving access to more families and more neighborhoods.
“We’re fixing it and stabilizing it, so next year we can pretty simply drop the age to include two-year-olds,” Beilin said.
Other proponents argue that it is better to scale as needed. To be sure, the current income-based system is flawed, Marco-O’Malley said. However, this addresses the needs of families with multiple children of different ages.
But the economic entitlement system is biased and difficult to navigate, Bailin said.
“You don’t have to go through complicated income tests to prove your worth, right?” Bailin said. “We all need this.”
Whatever expansion occurs, experts agree that as the system expands, it will also need to raise wages for childcare workers to make up for childcare labor shortages.
Will other cities and states follow suit with free child care?
It’s safe to say that other cities and states will be looking to New York in the coming years to see if and how universal free child care becomes a reality.
“People are excited about the idea,” said Shoshana Hershkowitz, campaign manager for the Empire State Campaign for Child Care. Universal child care is “very popular and has appeal across all kinds of political lines and demographics.”
It’s not just about affordability, she said. It is related to the healthy development of children. “The first three years are critical when it comes to brain development,” Hershkowitz said.
“New York City is often the starting point for trends across the country, whether it’s fashion or the arts,” said Julie Cashen, senior fellow and director of women’s economic justice at the Century Foundation. “And I think this could be just the kind of city that New York City starts to show potential for.”
Madeline Mitchell’s role covering women and the care economy for USA TODAY is supported by partnerships such as: extremely important and Journalism funding partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
Contact Madeline at: memitchell@usatoday.com and @maddiemitch_ With X.
