Free child care for all? New Mexico is putting the theory to the test
By Eryn Mathewson, CNN
(CNN) — The cost of child care nearly doubled Emily Wildau’s mortgage. Then last month, New Mexico launched universal child care.
The free child care saves Wildau, a mother to an 11-month-old son in Albuquerque, about $21,000 a year, allowing financial breathing room that her family had never imagined before.
“We would’ve made it work, but it would’ve been difficult,” Wildau told CNN. “When my husband’s car broke down this week, that would’ve been really hard for us to pay for both things. It just takes a lot of stress away.”
The Wildaus are among the first families to benefit from the New Mexico program, which took effect on November 1 — the state is the first to offer free child care to nearly all families, regardless of income or immigration status. Emily works for a nonprofit that helped the state design the program but said she was not involved.
The shift comes amid rising affordability concerns and soaring child care costs across the nation. The annual price of child care increased 29% from 2020 to 2024, outpacing inflation and intensifying the strain on families, according to Child Care Aware of America’s report this year.
Before November, a family of four in New Mexico had to earn less than $129,000 to qualify for free care, according to the state’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD), which oversees the program. Now the program is open to everyone.
How it’s working so far
The program has already seen some potential signs of early success. ECECD data show that about 7,000 children (from nearly 6,000 families) were enrolled in the first month. Of these families, 63% were newly eligible because they previously made too much to qualify. Additionally, there are 1,351 providers accepting the child care assistance subsidy, or 85% of all eligible providers.
Critics are worried about funding the program in the long term. It is expected to carry an annual price tag of roughly $600 million, according to the ECECD. The program is largely funded by the Early Childhood Trust Fund, which was created in 2020 with a $300 million endowment and has since ballooned to around $10 billion because of oil and gas revenue.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the program is an investment in the state’s workforce and economic health. New Mexico aims to add 1,000 registered child care homes, 120 licensed homes and 55 licensed centers to support 12,000 more children. Licensed homes can care for more children than child care homes but must meet more regulatory requirements.
Meeting the demand for child care workers
The success of the program rests largely on having enough qualified workers. Low funding and poor pay have contributed to worker shortages and closures of child care centers across the country, according to research from the University of California, Berkeley.
The state estimates that an additional 5,000 early childhood professionals are needed to operate the program.
To attract more talent, New Mexico is raising the base pay for child care workers from roughly $15 to $16-$19 per hour — an optional rate that 40% of licensed providers have opted into. The increased wage could mean a salary as high as $39,250 a year. The median wage for child care workers nationally was $32,050 per year as of May 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“By supporting higher wages for child care workers, we can strengthen the workforce, reduce turnover and ensure families are better off as they move up the income ladder,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement to CNN.
But some child care providers are not so sure.
Barbara Tedrow — who owns several centers in Farmington and serves as policy chair for the nonprofit New Mexico Early Childhood Association — said she’s opted into the universal child care program (allowing the state to pay for contracts). But hasn’t opted into the enhanced wage rates.
“I can’t pay my mortgage (for a child care center) and an enhanced rate at $19 an hour,” she said. “It’s just not going to work.”
State Rep. Rebecca Dow, who founded the first nationally accredited early childhood program in the town of Truth or Consequences, said higher wages could push low-income child care workers over the threshold for crucial federal benefits, like housing assistance and SNAP. She also worried universal eligibility could make it harder for vulnerable families — such as those who rely on care while seeking work — to gain access to child care.
“I fully support high-quality, accessible child care for all. Does that mean free? In my opinion, no,” said Dow, a Republican.
A national conversation
New Mexico’s program comes as affordability concerns take center stage in the United States. In Pennsylvania this week, President Donald Trump touched on the economy and said prices “are coming down,” though he added that the affordability question is a Democratic “hoax.”
A few weeks earlier, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani told Trump that affordability remains a major burden for his constituents. Mamdani made universal child care a pillar of his mayoral campaign, and the idea continues to gain momentum in several other Democrat-led cities and states.
For families and caregivers in New Mexico, free child care has already netted notable savings. Emily Wildau said her child care bills were about $1,800 before the program — more than $21,000 a year.
Kierstin Steiner, an Albuquerque public school teacher and mother of a 4-year-old, said universal child care saves her family $300 to $400 a month — money she’ll put toward emergencies or student loans. The relief and benefit for families is real, she said.
“Paying early childhood educators more will be hugely impactful,” she said. “Universal child care means more families can access daycare, more parents can return to work, and more kids can start school earlier and get excited about learning. That can shape education outcomes for life.”
CNN’s Alicia Wallace contributed reporting.
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