For four years, New Mexico has been on a distressing losing streak. The state has consistently ranked last in the nation for child wellbeing, as determined by factors including household income, educational outcomes, and child mortality. And over the past decade, whenever New Mexico hasn’t placed 50th, it’s been 49th.
But in its ongoing efforts to shake off that unenviable distinction, the state is poised to achieve a significant first. In September, governor Michelle Lujan Grisham – who made affordable childcare a centerpiece of her 2018 campaign – announced that New Mexico will offer free universal childcare. No other state in the US currently provides this essential service.
The program is projected to save families an average of $13,000 each year. That’s a windfall almost anywhere, but it’s a particularly life-changing sum in a state that has, by one measure, the highest child poverty rate in the nation. And New Mexico may offer a model for other jurisdictions seeking to strengthen the social safety net, particularly as the Trump administration does its level best to shred it.
Childcare for a single infant is now more expensive than public college tuition in 38 states, and each year, the price of daycare pushes 134,000 families below the poverty line. In New Mexico, childcare can cost over a third of the median single parent’s income. The resulting financial toll has nationwide consequences: according to one study, the inadequate childcare system costs the economy $122bn each year. Meanwhile, the personal toll disproportionately falls on mothers. Amid sky-high daycare prices and return-to-office policies, workforce participation among women with young children is declining, threatening their career development and future earnings.
The market alone can do little to lower prices. Providing kids with well-trained, nurturing caregivers in a safe and engaging environment is labor-intensive, with teacher-child ratios as low as one-to-three recommended for the youngest charges. Plus, there’s limited room for cost-cutting in an industry that is, by strict necessity, highly regulated. All of this means that care costs more to provide than most families can afford, making it, in former treasury secretary Janet Yellen’s words: “a textbook example of a broken market.”
Despite this, the US spends a smaller proportion of public dollars on early childhood education than almost all other wealthy countries. The Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan infused the industry with funding that helped keep centers open, employees in work, and moved kids off of waitlists and into care. However, this subsidy expired in 2023, and Donald Trump’s return to office has since imperiled the already meager federal childcare offerings.
The perennially underfunded Head Start program, which marked its 60th anniversary last year and provides education and healthcare to children from very low-income families, appears firmly in the Trump regime’s crosshairs: the administration closed half of its regional offices this spring. These days, Trump no longer denies that Project 2025 is his handbook for filleting the federal government – and that plan calls for defunding Head Start entirely. The White House briefly considered carrying out the recommendation in its 2026 budget.
This makes New Mexico’s commitment all the more necessary. Under Lujan Grisham’s administration, the state has made astonishing strides in addressing the childcare crisis. Since 2022, it’s offered free care to families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, and now, by broadening the program to include families of all incomes, another 12,000 children are expected to gain access. In addition to supporting kids and parents, New Mexico incentivizes higher wages by providing more money to daycares offering entry-level salaries of at least $18 per hour. That’s below a living wage for a childless adult, but it’s considerably more than the state’s $12-an-hour minimum. The state legislature must vote next year to sustain the funding – and, as it’s controlled by Democrats, is expected to do so.
New Mexico primarily pays for its program through its Early Childhood Trust Fund, which the state endowed using revenue from oil and gas. However, it’s entirely possible to support families without relying on extractive industries. Connecticut is deploying its budget surplus to create a childcare endowment that’s projected to fund free daycare for families earning less than $100,000 a year. And Washington DC raised taxes on high earners to increase pay for early childhood educators, making it easier to recruit staff while expanding the number of available daycare seats.
Even more ambitious models are found abroad. In Denmark, all children over six months old have a guaranteed right to care, either in centers that are part of the broader public education system or with home-based providers. Parents pay no more than a quarter of the fee. And Canada’s Liberal Party government is implementing a plan that hopes to lower childcare costs to about $7 USD a day. Although not all provinces are on track to reach the 2026 target deadline, prices have declined across the country.
The idea of creating similar resources for working families in the US isn’t mere fantasy – policies addressing childcare affordability are broadly popular, particularly among those who have kids. Fully 92% of American parents of children under five support universal childcare, as do 79% of Republicans with kids under 18.
With all hope, New Mexico won’t long hold the distinction of being the nation’s only jurisdiction offering early childhood education for all. In New York City, where a year of infant care costs $26,000, mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani has made free public daycare a pillar of his campaign. Enacting such a program in America’s largest city likely faces a steep uphill battle, despite the fact that it would allow thousands of mothers to join the workforce and produce $670m in annual earnings. But three-quarters of New Yorkers support universal childcare – which suggests that voters may be ready for the fight.
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Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times
