This year’s state budget is off to a promising start. Governor Hochul says she wants to bring universal child care to all New Yorkers, and she has proposed a major increase in funding for child care vouchers and subsidies, plus two pilot programs focused on low-income families — a direct result of the tireless advocacy of families, providers, and organizers across this state.
But there’s a major piece missing from Governor Hochul’s plan: the workforce. Expanding access for families is impossible without also ensuring that child care educators earn a thriving wage. Without investment in the child care workforce this year, the path to universal child care will not be paved with a solid foundation, and families will still not be able to access child care, despite the Governor’s proposals to increase funding, because there are not enough educators to staff programs to enroll more children.
This is not a question of long term sustainability, but an immediate crisis that we must address for the sake of the educators themselves, families, and the state economy.