October 14, 2025
The state is setting a shining example with its first-in-the-nation plan. But the policy has support in the US.
For four years, New Mexico has been on a sad losing streak. The state has consistently ranks last in the country for the well-being of children, as determined by factors such as household income, educational outcomes and child mortality. And over the past decade, whenever New Mexico hasn't ranked 50th, it has finished 49th.
But in its constant efforts to get rid of this unenviable difference, the state is poised to achieve significant success. In September, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who made affordable child care a centerpiece of her 2018 campaign, announced that New Mexico will offer free universal child care. No other US state currently provides this important service.
The program is projected to save families an average of $13,000 per year. It's a windfall almost everywhere, but it's an especially life-changing amount in a state that, by one measure, has the highest child poverty rate in the country. AND New Mexico could become a model for other jurisdictions looking to strengthen the social safety net, especially as the Trump administration does everything it can to dismantle it.
Single child care is now provided more expensive than state college tuition in 38 states, and every year the cost of kindergarten pushes 134,000 families below the poverty line. In New Mexico, child care can cost more a third of the average income of a single parent. The resulting financial loss has nationwide implications: Inadequate child care, according to one study costs the economy $122 billion every year.
Meanwhile, the personal toll falls disproportionately on mothers. Amid sky-high child care prices and back-to-work policies, labor force participation among women with small children is decreasingjeopardizing their career growth and future earnings.
The market on its own can do little to lower prices. Providing children with well-trained, caring caregivers in a safe and engaging environment is a labor-intensive process, with a teacher-to-child ratio of just one to three recommended for the youngest students. Moreover, the scope for cost reduction is limited in an industry that is, by necessity, highly regulated. All this means that care is more expensive than most families can afford. Words by Janet Yellen: “A textbook example of a broken market.”
Current number
Despite this, the United States spends a smaller share of government dollars on preschool education than almost all other rich countries. The Biden administration's American Rescue Plan provided the industry with funding that helped keep centers open, employees employed and children moved from waiting lists into foster care. However, that subsidy expired in 2023, and Donald Trump's return to power has since threatened already meager federal child care offerings.
The chronically underfunded Head Start program, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year and provides education and health care to low-income children, is under the Trump regime's crosshairs as the administration shuts down half of its regional offices this spring. Today, Trump no longer denies that Project 2025 is his guide to filleting the federal government. complete defunding of Head Start. White House briefly reviewed implementing this recommendation in its 2026 budget.
This makes New Mexico's commitment even more necessary. Under Lujan Grisham's administration, the state has made amazing strides in addressing the child care crisis. From 2022, it offers free care to families with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty leveland now, by expanding the program to include families of all incomes, 12,000 more children are expected to gain access. In addition to supporting children and parents, New Mexico incentivizes higher wages by providing more money to child care centers that offer entry-level wages of at least $18 an hour. That's below the cost of living for a childless adult, but significantly more than the state minimum of $12 an hour. The state Legislature must vote next year to maintain the funding—and, because it is controlled by Democrats, it is expected to do so.
New Mexico primarily pays for its program through the Early Childhood Trust Fund, which the state funds with oil and gas revenues. However, it is entirely possible to support families without relying on the mining industry. Connecticut is using its budget surplus to create a child care fund that is projected to fund free kindergarten for families with incomes less than $100,000 per year. And Washington, D.C. raised taxes on high earners increase the salaries of preschool teachers, which will facilitate recruitment and at the same time increase the number of available places in kindergartens.
Even more ambitious models are found abroad. In Denmark, all children over six months have guaranteed right to careeither at centers that are part of the wider public education system or through home-based service providers. Parents pay no more than a quarter of the fee. The Liberal Party government of Canada is pursuing a plan that hopes to reduce child care costs. about 7 dollars a day. While not all provinces are on track to meet the 2026 deadline, prices have fallen across the country.
The idea of creating similar resources for working families in the United States is not just a fantasy: Policies aimed at making child care more affordable are widely popular, especially among those with children. Fully 92 percent of American parents children under five support universal child care, as do 79 percent of Republicans who have children under 18.
Let's hope that New Mexico will not long be considered the only jurisdiction in the country that offers pre-K to all. In New York City, where child care costs $26,000 a year, mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has made free public daycare a pillar of his campaign. Implementing such a program in America's largest city would likely face an uphill battle, even though it would allow thousands of mothers to join the workforce and produce. $670 million annual profit. But three quarters of New Yorkers to support universal child care, which suggests voters may be ready for a fight.
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