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New Mexico, long at the bottom of state rankings for child well-being and educational outcomes, is on the verge of launching a first-in-the-nation program aimed at helping reverse those trends: free child care and preschool for all resident families, regardless of income.
The move would save families an average of $13,000 a year in a state where the median family income is just above $64,000 annually. American households increasingly struggle to cover day care fees, which can dwarf housing costs. And while Congress this year passed tax credits that the Trump administration says will help parents with rising prices, federal funding for early childhood has remained flat.
That has left states to decide how to address a child care crisis of families that cannot afford care, providers that cannot stay afloat and teachers who cannot survive on low-wage jobs. All states use federal and, sometimes, state dollars to subsidize tuition for low-income families at varying rates, and some, including Vermont and Washington state, have opted to build out programs using tax revenue. In New York City, Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has promised to implement a universal child care program if he is elected in November.
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‘Life-changing’ for families
Another looming question is whether future administrations and legislatures will remain committed to the expenditure. Serrano said she hopes they will see it as a long game.
“The thing is, we didn’t tumble to the bottom of the list overnight,” she said. “What we’re talking about is undoing decades of policy decisions that kept people poor.”
For now, officials acknowledge, funding such a program may be easier for New Mexico, the second-largest oil state after Texas, than other states. But some experts say it is matter of priorities.
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