NEW YORK — One New York City mayoral candidate, Brad Lander, is promising free child care for every 2-year-old. Another, Zellnor Myrie, wants to launch a universal after-school program. And a third, Scott Stringer, is pushing to extend the school day.
Several Democrats looking to become the city’s next mayor have pitched plans around making preschool programs available to all 3-year-olds, or extending universal child care to support families with younger children.
It’s a sign frustrations among working- and middle-class families over skyrocketing child care costs are resonating in the body politic of a city that’s increasingly unaffordable — and that those voters are poised to shape the Democratic primary, which is now just five weeks away. A recent poll found that nearly 80 percent of likely voters support free child care for 2-year-olds. Families with young children were twice as likely to leave the city as those without them. And last year, the average cost of child care for infants and toddlers in family-based care — in a provider’s own home — was $18,200 annually. In center-based care, which is offered in classrooms, it averaged out to $26,000 a year.
“Elected officials and would-be elected officials are seeing that this is a constituency that is good for them to be thoughtful of,” said Rebecca Bailin, who leads New Yorkers United for Child Care, a parent-led group.
The issue is an obvious political vulnerability for Mayor Eric Adams, a registered Democrat who’s sitting out the primary to run as an independent in the general election. He announced a permanent investment of $167 million in early childhood funding last month — a significant reversal after accusing his predecessor Mayor Bill de Blasio of mismanaging the preschool program.
De Blasio made implementing universal prekindergarten a centerpiece of his 2013 mayoral campaign. Since then, Adams abandoned the former mayor’s goal of making pre-K available to all 3-year olds.
The mayoral contenders running in the Democratic primary are generally aligned in their quest to expand access to child care, but they have outlined an array of different approaches.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and Lander, the city’s comptroller, have prioritized expanding child care to earlier ages.
Lander has promised a preschool seat for every 3-year-old and 4-year-old and 16,000 new seats for 3-year olds — the latter of which he said he could achieve with or without help from Albany. He’s said he would then begin building a “2-K for All” program to serve 2-year-olds with help from the state, at a price tag of $1.3 billion.
Mamdani has called for free child care for children between the ages of 6 weeks and 5 years old, as well as boosted wages for child care workers. His plan would cost at least $5 billion in city money and additional state and federal dollars, said Andrew Epstein, his campaign spokesperson. Epstein also pointed to new taxes on wealthy New Yorkers, which would have to be approved in Albany, as another potential source of funding.
Ramos wants to expand universal child care to all children under the age of 5 and increase salaries for child care staffers as well. She intends to pay for those proposals through taxes on companies with payrolls higher than $250 million, a funding stream which would also require approval from Albany. She helped roll out universal pre-K as an aide to de Blasio.
Other plans focus on ways to accommodate parents who work long hours.
In March, Myrie, a state senator, unveiled a proposal for universal after-school and full-day preschool for 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds. He said he would finance it through several sources, including savings from decreased city spending on migrant funding. The plan would cost at least $400 million in its first year. (Lander and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the frontrunner in the race, also vowed to expand after-school access.)
Stringer, a former city comptroller, wants to extend the school day to 4:30 p.m., a plan which he intends to fund through federal and state grants. He has also proposed a fund that would divide the costs of child care between the city, employers and families — a program Michigan has already implemented.
Cuomo hasn’t explicitly called for universal child care. He promised to guarantee slots for all 3-year olds — a surprise to some given that he rejected de Blasio’s demand that universal pre-K be funded through a tax on the wealthy. Cuomo ultimately ended up financing universal pre-K in the state budget.
The former governor said in his 25-point education plan that he would achieve his 3K guarantee by offering “capital and operational support” to community-based providers and prioritizing expansion in underserved neighborhoods.
He’s also planning to find space in elementary school buildings for support services for developmentally delayed babies and toddlers, as well as preschool classes. The goal is to give families “a one-stop hub for education, health and developmental support,” his plan states.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who launched her last-minute mayoral bid in March, has called for expanding child care subsidies to more families. She’s also pushing for more funding for extended-day preschool seats and outreach to help families access early childhood programs.
At the moment, Cuomo holds a commanding lead with a double-digit advantage over Mamdani, who’s in second place, according to a recent Marist poll. Under ranked-choice voting, Cuomo led the first round with 44 percent of likely primary voters to Mamdani’s 22 percent, excluding undecided voters. Adrienne Adams placed third in the first round, at 11 percent, followed by Lander at 10 percent. The rest of the field lagged in single digits, according to the poll.
Groups like the 5BORO Institute think tank have been pressuring Eric Adams specifically and elected officials more broadly to prioritize child care. New Yorkers United for Child Care also opposed Adams’ preschool funding cuts in 2023 — cuts he has partially rolled back. That group has also urged mayoral candidates to prioritize universal child care.
The Day Care Council of New York, a membership organization of child care providers, sent a guide on early childhood education to candidates Wednesday. Its recommendations included higher salaries for child care workers and ameliorating the contracting process so providers can get paid on time. They are also demanding universal child care for 2-year-olds, as well as more outreach and marketing.
“If you’re talking about doing universal, if you are talking about expanding — which we’re really excited almost all of the candidates are — it has to include investing in the workforce,” said Gregory Brender of the Day Care Council.
All of the candidates have called for salary bumps for staffers. Stringer has put forward a plan aimed at helping providers navigate complex city regulations. And Ramos is seeking more effective collaboration between city agencies to speed up licensing, background checks and safety inspections.
Their policy prescriptions all come at a time when problems continue to afflict the city’s early childhood system.
Tens of thousands of preschool seats will likely sit empty next year. Some 55,582 students received pre-K offers last week, out of 70,000 available seats, according to data the Department of Education shared with city lawmakers earlier this week. And 44,386 students recently received 3K placements, out of 47,000 spots.
About 15 percent of 3K applicants — over 6,000 students — did not get accepted into their desired programs.
Advocacy organizations and think tanks pushing for universal child care believe it has enormous economic benefits. In 2022 alone, the city lost an estimated $23 billion as parents left the workforce, according to the city’s Economic Development Corporation.
Providing it, though, will likely be expensive. New Yorkers United for Child Care projected universal child care for 2-year-olds would cost $1.3 billion annually — and $12.7 billion a year to implement it statewide for children under the age of 5.
“Child care is both a challenge to affordability and labor force participation,” said Ana Champeny of the Citizens Budget Commission. “The question about any public program is whether it is affordable and sustainable within the context of the city budget — how would it be paid for and would other spending need to be reduced?”
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