New York Takes Steps Toward Universal Childcare
January 9, 2026
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The Roosevelt Rundown features our top stories of the week.
Zohran Mamdani reads a Christmas book to students at Little Scholars on December 11, 2025, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
New Year, New Policymaking Opportunities
After a whirlwind week of sweeping new policy directives from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on issues ranging from housing to junk fees, on Thursday New York Governor Kathy Hochul joined the mayor to announce a new statewide universal childcare proposal.
The plan, which will require approval from the state legislature, would direct funding to New York City’s under-resourced preschool program for three- and four-year-olds to make it truly universal, expand to include children statewide, and launch a new program for two-year-olds.
This news comes less than four months after New Mexico’s announcement of its own statewide universal childcare plan, which Roosevelt Program Manager Lena Bilik discussed in a September blog post. In the absence of federal support, these state-level programs reflect the increasingly urgent need for government intervention in the cost-of-living crisis, where the childcare market failure has burdened families and providers alike with unmanageable costs.
Bilik’s previous research on childcare lays out several principles that should guide the rollout of any universal public childcare system:
“This victory represents much more than a triumph of city and state government working in partnership,” Mamdani said. “It is proof that when New Yorkers come together, we can transform the way government serves working families.”
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What We’re Talking About
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What We’re Reading
- On tariffs: Axios reported on new research that attempts to measure and explain the economic impact of Trump administration tariffs.
- Read more: With a Supreme Court ruling expected any day now, see Roosevelt Industrial Policy Director Todd N. Tucker’s preview of possible outcomes from the Trump tariff case: “As the Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Trump’s ‘Emergency’ Tariffs, Few Good Outcomes Await”
- On tax reform: Roosevelt Fellow Portia Allen-Kyle responded to Mitt Romney’s “Tax the Rich” op-ed, which, she points out, makes a good-faith effort to forge a path forward but fails to grapple with how we got here—a tax system that was built along racial and class lines to privilege the already powerful.
- Read more: “A More Equitable Tax System Is Possible” by Beverly I. Moran