Mondays with the Mayors: As Trump attacks affordable child care, Democratic mayors are delivering real progress
WASHINGTON—On Sunday, The Bulwark reported that the Trump administration is considering a proposal to gut Head Start, the program that provides early childhood education and health services to low income children and families. Every day, Head Start serves over 700,000 low-income preschoolers and infants to ensure children have a safe, nurturing environment while their parents work. The Trump administration’s proposal would gut Head Start and eliminate critical quality and safety standards.
Trump’s proposal would leave working families with impossible choices when it comes to child care. In 45 states, the cost of child care for two children is more than the median rent or mortgage payment. For one child, it’s more than in-state tuition in 41 states. Every family in every corner of the country wants what is best for their child. As the price of child care skyrockets, fewer families can actually afford the child care they need and want for their children.
If Republicans cut Head Start, low-income parents could lose the only affordable child care option in their community and be forced to seek less safe child care arrangements, take on debt, or leave the workforce. That’s where the government is supposed to step in: providing a public good in places where the market is fundamentally broken.
But as Republicans in Washington continue to make child care more expensive by making drastic cuts and demonizing immigrants that make up a major part of the care work force, Democratic Mayors have stepped into the breach to lower child care costs for families.
In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani made affordable child care a major pillar of his historic campaign for mayor. He’s worked with New York Governor Kathy Hochul to deliver results for working families: last month, the application process for free 2-K in New York City opened for the first 2,000 children and more are planned for next year.
In Washington, D.C., Democratic-nominee for mayor Janeese Lewis George won her primary by pledging to extend the city’s existing child care subsidy program to every family in D.C. so that no one pays more than 7 percent of their annual income on child care expenses. This is a direct response to D.C.’s child care crisis where child care costs are the highest in the country.
Mayor Michelle Wu in Boston has made expanding the number of child care providers a key part of her affordability agenda. The pandemic devastated the child care workforce in Boston, with the city losing 14 percent of its child care workforce. She’s invested in recruiting, retaining, and paying child care providers a fair, living wage for their work and to open more child care slots and bring down costs for families.
Across the country, the cost of child care is a major driver of the affordability crisis for working families. Democratic mayors are stepping up and delivering real results for families around the country.
