NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Announces Universal Child Care Plan
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is on track to fulfill one of his major campaign promises only a week into his term. On Thursday, Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a plan that put New York City on pace to become the first American city with universal child care.
According to the New York Times, Hochul and Mamdani had a joint press conference on Thursday at a Brooklyn YMCA that also holds a child care center. Together, they announced a plan to dramatically expand child care options for 100,000 children in New York. “This is the day that everything changes,” Hochul said during the news conference. “The era of empty promises ends with the two of us, right here, right now.”
Zohran Mamdani ran a campaign largely focused on making New York City more affordable for its residents. Mamdani’s critics framed his goals as unrealistic throughout his campaign, and have questioned whether he’d actually be able to implement any of the ideas he ran on. Mamdani addressed those criticisms during the news conference. “To those who think that the promises of a campaign cannot survive once confronted with the realities of government, today is your answer,” Mamdani said.
So how do they intend to execute this plan? I’ll let people far smarter than me explain the mechanics of that.
From the New York Times
Ms. Hochul has proposed spending $1.7 billion on the expansion plan, which would bring the state’s total spending on child care during the next fiscal year — which begins on April 1 — to $4.5 billion. The plan will be included in Ms. Hochul’s proposed executive budget, which she will negotiate with leaders of the State Senate and Assembly in the coming months.
The funding would help the governor work toward a goal of expanding child care to all 4-year-olds statewide by the fall of 2028. It would also enable Mr. Mamdani to make New York City’s preschool program for 3-year-olds, known as 3-K, truly universal, and create a new free child care system for the city’s 2-year-olds, starting with 2,000 toddlers this fall and expanding each subsequent year.
The governor is proposing to spend $73 million in the first year to cover the cost of the creation and expansion of that program, which would be known as 2-Care. In the second year, as infrastructure and capacity could allow more children to enroll, that number would rise to $425 million.
There’s no guarantee that the plan will ultimately come to fruition, though. The proposal would need to be approved by the state legislature, which may be inclined to approve it, as it would use existing state funds rather than raise taxes. The plan has support from both progressives and moderate Democrats in New York, many of whom joined Hochul and Mamdani during the news conference. In fact, universal child care has support from many New York business owners as well, who believe that the lack of affordable child care is driving many workers out of the city.
If the plan is approved, the real work will begin. The state will need to hire and train countless educators and child care professionals, in addition to shaping a unified child care system. Mamdani acknowledged the work needed to make this plan successful, emphasizing that it must be staggered over time.
“Child care is not just a question of finding the funding,” Mamdani said. “It is also a question of building infrastructure and the apparatus around it, and that requires you to stage this, as opposed to being able to do it all in one swoop.”
Things worth doing are never easy, and if this plan succeeds, it would be a massive win for Zohran Mamdani’s push for a more affordable New York City. In an ideal world, it could even inspire several other big cities currently struggling with affordability to adopt a version of this plan.
Time will tell if any of this works out, but for now, Mamdani appears to be keeping his promise of making New York City more affordable for those who call it home.
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NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Announces Universal Child Care Plan was originally published on newsone.com
