Why we should care about universal child care

Population decline is top of mind for lots of people these days.

A falling birth rate, both in the United States and in wealthy countries around the world, points to an imminent future where their population flattens out or even starts to decrease. This has raised fears of civilizational collapse, or, more realistically, getting stuck in an inverted population pyramid where there won't be enough workers to support elderly retirees and unsustainable debt will force safety nets to be cut back.

Can the populations of developed economies get to a sustainable number?

In the United States, an obvious step would be to make it more affordable to have children. Working families feel squeezed in an inflationary trap where necessities are more expensive than ever. While it's not the full policy solution, one answer would be to offer free universal childcare, as some industrialized nations already do.

Some recent polling has shown the idea to be popular across the spectrum of communities and political persuasions. Most recently, in the New York City mayoral race, establishing a universal child care program became a full-on campaign selling point.

Like paying a second rent

As a field lead for Zohran Mamdani's mayoral race in 2025, I repeated the three biggest planks of the platform ad nauseam when canvassing voters. Freezing the rent and fast and free buses were popular, but when I spoke about universal child care, the reaction I'd get from young parents and parents of the young was visceral and immediate.

Because, as Diana Moreno, the candidate who won Mamdani's State Assembly seat, said, "child care is like paying a second rent."

This campaign plank resonates because it's become common knowledge that families leave the city more often over the cost of living—not so much because of high income taxes.

Despite the popularity of child care, more challenges lie ahead. Gov. Kathy Hochul said that she was on board with spending $1.7 billion to expand Pre-K, 3-K and 2-Care in the state budget. However, she feigned hearing loss when it came to paying for it—pretending to believe that a "tax the rich" chant was actually "let's go Bills".

While Mayor Mamdani sticks to his guns about raising taxes on the wealthy, not only to fund universal child care but for a city budget left in shambles by his predecessor, Hochul's donor base is against it. Will she heed the call of the voters, or will she support tax cuts and austerity measures to benefit the uber-rich?

The billionaire class never balks at public spending when it benefits them. Take Terry Pegula, owner of Hochul's favorite team, the Buffalo Bills. He willingly took $850 million in taxpayer money to build a new stadium for his team, while at the same time flaunting his $100 million yacht. How many people could have benefited from spending that massive sum on better causes?

One study published in Social Work Research calculated that "the annual aggregate cost of U.S. child poverty is $1.0298 trillion, representing 5.4% of the gross domestic product." This number represents the loss of economic productivity, coupled with increased costs to society around health care and the criminal justice system.

Experts say it wouldn't take much to reverse those losses. In New York state, increasing the number of families who can access child care, while improving the wages and benefits of child care workers, could lift 84,000 residents out of poverty, according to Robin Hood (the anti-poverty organization, not the online stock-trading app).

A New York City report also showed that child poverty in the Big Apple dropped nearly 10% between 2013 and 2019, during which time Mayor De Blasio initiated his universal pre-K program in 2014. If Mayor Mamdani delivers on his agenda, these poverty numbers may keep going down.

But winning over New York City is one thing, you might say. What are the political prospects for child care in a place that isn't a bastion of leftist politics?

What about in red states?

In 1998, well before the Empire State considered it, Oklahoma became the second state in the U.S. to establish universal pre-K, despite a deeply conservative legislature.

A Republican lawmaker named Joe Eddins deserves credit for the program. The ostensible goal was to close a loophole that allowed kindergartens to enroll 4-year-olds, in a scam to pull in more public money. But in exchange, Eddins' provision established state funding for a real public preschool program to provide quality education in early childhood. He wrote the funding language in such a way that it looked innocuous, escaping the scrutiny of right-wing hardliners—essentially, sneaking it into law.

The modified bill passed, and the program to create free preschool became firmly established. It was immediately embraced by the populace. According to Vox, Eddins "said it was like free beer at the baseball game—everybody just finds out where to get it. It’s so unbelievably popular there now, and has been from the very beginning."

Still, it isn't the 1990s anymore. Regardless of the benefits it could deliver, billions of dollars in new spending probably won't fly under the radar in 2026. In order to win universal child care, there needs to be an outside strategy together with winning elections.

Standing on the shoulders of groups that have fought for years, current organizers are now hoping to complete the task. "Advocates and grassroots organizers were pushing behind the scenes to make this happen, with much of the energy coming from historically disenfranchised groups like Latino parents and childcare educators," the Guardian wrote. In that spirit, out of Zohran Mamdani's electoral campaign, a grassroots organization called Our Time, along with NYC DSA, look to pressure Hochul to do more than just agree to a program, but to also tax the wealthy in order to fully fund one.

The pressure has spread to other races. Democratic candidates all over the country are getting on board. Francesca Hong, a DSA-endorsed candidate for Wisconsin governor, said she wants universal child care to be one of the first bills she signs in office. Surprisingly, even a conservative Democrat like James Carville wrote, "we should not fear making universal child care a public good."

It's never been more clear. Universal child care is gaining steam in the United States—and even a majority of Republicans appear to be on board.