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Mamdani works toward child care pledge as advocates press for patience

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is making strides toward his campaign promise for universal child care in a phased implementation plan that has already seen some assistance by the state’s governor.  

While the city already offers free, universal pre-K to children 4 years old and up, Mamdani has worked with Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to secure funding to expand the existing free child care program for 3-year-olds and create an initiative for 2-year-olds.  

But the mayor is likely to run into the difficulties that have longed plague the child care system — and is already facing some pushback with pre-K teachers demanding higher wages. 

“I think if people see that there is some progress and that the more they learn, maybe the faster it can go, they will take heart and be patient. It’s one of the things that’s happened over the last decade or so — is that the child care infrastructure has just become very threadbare,” said Patricia Cole, senior policy adviser for Zero to Three.  

“And we saw this, especially in the pandemic, lot of programs had to close because of the way they’re funded. And you realize both the importance of having that child care infrastructure, but also how fragile it is. And so, we’re not starting from a position of, oh, we have lots of really strong programs, but also, all we need to do is expand out. We’re starting with we have a lot of programs that barely hang on from month to month because they don’t have enough funding,” Cole added.  

The expanded “3-K for All” plan and newly developed 2-K one will be launched in select New York neighborhoods this fall, with a goal for them to be available to all families within four years.  

The program is a collaboration between Mamdani and Hochul, who looks to expand child care across the state to 100,000 more children and called for $4.5 billion to spent on the issue in the upcoming fiscal year.

Shortly after, Mamdani’s administration has put out a request for information for new providers in the city who want to participate in the program or current ones who want to expand their services.  

“The cost of child care is pushing New Yorkers out of the city they call home — forcing parents to give up careers they fought for and to make impossible choices about whether they can afford to grow their families at all. That’s not an accident, it’s a policy failure. And it’s why this administration is moving with urgency to deliver universal child care,” he has previously said.  

A poll from Siena University last year found almost two-thirds of New Yorkers support universal child care and raising taxes on those who make over $1 million a year to pay for it.  

In the city, the average cost of child care in 2024 was $18,200, an increase of 79 percent since 2019. For child care out of a center, it was around $26,000 a year, according to the comptroller’s office.  

“We’re sort of watching it unfold in real time and taking note and hoping to learn lessons from this implementation that we can hopefully iterate on and improve elsewhere across the country and maybe eventually at the federal level. I also think the other thing of note is that Mayor Mamdani is sort of recognizing the challenge of operationalizing a full system that meets the needs of every family at scale by using a sort of phased implementation approach,” said Hailey Gibbs, associate director of early childhood policy at the Center for American Progress. 

While the efforts are highly supported, workers in the child care industry say increased attention on the issue should also come with an urgency to raise wages.  

Chalkbeat reported that pre-K teachers planned to hold a rally at city hall on Thursday to demand increases in wages. 

“It’s just a complete lack of respect,” pre-K teacher Rebecca Schneider-Kaplan told Chalkbeat. “I needed two degrees to become an early childhood educator, but I cannot afford to pay back my loans because I don’t make enough money.” 

The city found 90 percent of community-based teachers with master’s degrees earn less than early childhood teachers who work in public schools. Certified teachers make almost $30,000 less than those at public schools in New York City.  

The city’s current child care programs serve 160,000 babies and children across public schools, neighborhood and daycare center options.  

“You want to make sure that a program that is truly universal means not just it’s everywhere, but it’s the same options for quality that parents want everywhere, and that, I think, is the hard thing, especially in child care that that is, and especially for infant/toddler care, that is a part of the workforce that is the least well compensated,” Cole said.  

The struggles for the child care sector have also been exacerbated under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and attempts to pull funding for the sector in some blue states after allegations of fraud in Minnesota.

“We were really excited about the governor’s expansion of child care vouchers, and decoupling it from federal requirements, and I think that really allows … for immigrant families to be able to have access to it. We definitely expect in New York City that there will not be any inquiries about immigration status or any red tape in the application process that would prohibit immigrant families from being able to participate in child care, and we’ve definitely heard that commitment from the from the mayor,” said Arlen Benjamin-Gomez, executive director of EdTrust in New York.  

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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