Is Universal Childcare the Democrats’ Winning Issue This Year?

An important component to all of these plans will be raising provider pay and trying to build on the network of experienced programs that already exist, while at the same time covering costs for families and trying to expand the network of providers. In most of the country, the current system is an unorganized, uneven patchwork of center-based and home-based care, so expanding care needs to be locally tailored. It will take time: In New York state, the first of Hochul’s planned programs for 4-year-olds will begin in the 2028–2029 school year.

Bilik, of the Roosevelt Institute, said these programs have to be built slowly because the providers, whether it’s a new government program or subsidized private centers, have to hire and train more workers without significantly disrupting the private market that people rely on right now. Experienced workers need to be retained, as well, she said. “In order to expand a childcare system to be even close to universal, you have to improve pay and benefits for the workforce,” Bilik said. “If we can’t get people to do this work right, we just won’t have the workers at the level [we need].” At the same time, expansion has to be handled carefully so that it doesn’t too dramatically disrupt the system we already have, she said.

Nina Dastur, the director of state and local policy at Community Change, a national community organizing group, noted that while Democratic-led states are seeking to expand childcare, the federal government is attacking it, claiming fraud is rampant and freezing funding. “We see that as a direct political attack in response to the movement that’s been built around childcare as an issue,” she said.