Can Zohran Mamdani Give New York City Families Free Child Care?

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary this week has brought his unapologetically ambitious plan one giant step closer to fruition: for the city to become the first in the US with universal child care.

The 33-year-old from Queens has pledged to make child care free for kids between the ages of 6 weeks and 5 years old, a drastic expansion from the current patchwork system of publicly funded 3-K and Pre-K that caters to about 100,000 children who turn three and four each year. He also wants to raise wages for workers in the industry.