Zohran Mamdani Proposes Universal Free Child Care to Support New York Families

Jessica Mendoza and her husband always dreamed of raising their family in Brooklyn, the place where both were born and grew up.

However, as they began investigating the costs associated with raising a young child in New York City, concerns about affordability soon emerged.

Despite their stable incomes—Jessica as a city employee and her husband working as an accountant—they realized that financially supporting a baby might be out of reach. Yet, their desire to have a child remained strong, Ms. Mendoza, 37, explained.

Following the birth of their daughter, they decided that the only viable way to stay in New York was to move in with Ms. Mendoza’s parents in Bushwick, where they compensated her mother to care for their child while they worked.

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor, has focused his campaign on voters like the Mendozas by promising to implement a free child care program accessible to all families in New York, regardless of their income level. Achieving this would require overcoming complex logistical and financial hurdles, including coordinating a fragmented network of public and private providers, expanding day care facilities, hiring numerous educators, and restructuring the city’s substantial $116 billion budget. If elected in November, Mamdani will face significant demands to fulfill this ambitious pledge.

Mamdani secured the Democratic nomination in June by challenging traditional assumptions about the composition of the party’s base in New York and the voters who influence local elections.