Can Mamdani Pull Off a Child-Care Miracle?

"He aims to provide high-quality, year-round care to toddlers and infants as young as six weeks old, while setting day-care workers' earnings "at parity" with those of public-school teachers. It's a cosmically aspirational set of goals, and it faces a steep set of obstacles. But if he can pull it off, the scheme would transform New York's demography and economy, constituting one of the most radical examples of policy entrepreneurship in recent memory."

"Day care is great. Good programs enhance children's cognitive development and school readiness, increasing educational attainment and improving health outcomes decades later. There's "a mountain of scientific evidence that the early years are the most important," Philip Fisher, the director of the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, told me. But unlike other wealthy countries, the United States forces parents to go it alone for the first three years of their children's lives, and more often the first five."

Zohran Mamdani has risen rapidly in New York politics and campaigned on bold cost-of-living measures including fast, free buses, a rent freeze, municipal grocery stores, and universal child care. The universal child care plan aims to deliver high-quality, year-round care for infants as young as six weeks and set day-care workers' earnings at parity with public-school teachers. The proposal faces major obstacles, including reliance on Albany-approved tax increases and entrenched underinvestment in early childhood. High-quality early care produces long-term cognitive, educational, and health benefits. If implemented, the program could reshape New York's demography and economy.

Read at The Atlantic