Mamdani moves toward universal child care promise

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Tuesday announced plans to offer 2,000 free child care spots to 2-year-olds, taking the first step toward achieving the mayor’s campaign promise of universal child care.

The program will launch this fall, offering free spots to toddlers in four neighborhoods before expanding to provide access to all 2-year-olds in the city within four years, Mamdani said.

The program will be funded with existing state tax revenue after Hochul this year announced a $1.2 billion commitment for early child care and education, including $73 million to fund the first 2,000 seats. By fall 2027, when the program expands to 12,000 free seats across all five boroughs, the state investment will grow to $425 million.

While the program will not require the tax increase for which Mamdani pushed, the leaders did not say how the program will be funded to reach its ultimate goal of providing free child care to as many as 100,000 2-year-olds in New York within four years.

“As New York’s first mom Governor, achieving affordable, universal child care has been a key priority for my administration and we are doing the work to see it through,” Hochul said in a statement. “That’s why we didn’t hesitate to partner with New York City to lay the groundwork and fund not one, but two years to realize the full implementation of free child care for all two-year-olds across the city.”

“Raising a child takes a village — and it takes a city government willing to step up and tackle the child care crisis head-on,” Mamdani said in a statement.

“Launching free 2-K in these four neighborhoods is just the beginning of our work to put money back in New Yorkers’ pockets, strengthen our entire economy and help more families build their lives here,” he added.

The four neighborhoods getting the first 2,000 spots are located in each borough except Staten Island.

Manhattan’s School District 6 includes Washington Heights, Inwood, Hamilton Heights and some of Manhattanville.

The Bronx’s School District 10 includes Fordham, Belmont, Norwood, Marble Hill, Morris Heights, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Van Cortlandt Village and Kingsbridge, and some of Kingsbridge Heights, Bedford Park, Mount Hope, Claremont-Bathgate and East Tremont.

Brooklyn’s School Districts 18 and 23 include Canarsie, Rugby-Remsen Village, Brownsville and Ocean Hill and parts of East Flatbush-Farragut and Prospect Lefferts Garden-Wingate.

Queens’s School District 27 includes Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Howard Beach and Rockaways and part of Lindenwood and Springfield Gardens North.

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