{"id":151724,"date":"2026-03-03T23:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151724\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:25:10","slug":"taxpayers-will-fork-over-more-than-36k-per-child-under-nyc-free-2-k-pilot-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151724\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxpayers will fork over more than $36K per child under NYC free 2-K pilot program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taxpayers will shell out more than $36,000 per tot for Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s free 2-K pilot program<\/a> \u2013 roughly $13,000 more than the average cost of private child care, city officials acknowledged Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul allocated $73 million in state funding for the 2,000-seat pilot launching in the fall \u2014 or about $36,500 per tot \u2014 as the pair move toward fulfilling Mamdani\u2019s promise <\/a>of universal child care for all city kids from 6 weeks to 5 years old.<\/p>\n

The two Democrats joined forces in Harlem Tuesday to announce the five school districts, mostly lower income and diverse neighborhoods, that will get the first shot at signing their little ones up for the freebie, previously dubbed \u201c2-Care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul answers questions from reporters after she and Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the first four NYC communities set to receive free 2-K seats. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done such a good job managing our budget that we\u2019re able to provide this new program in an enhanced way to have 2-year-old care in the city of New York, in addition to all the other investments we made throughout the state with current revenues,\u201d Hochul said, standing next to Mamdani at the\u00a0Sugar Hill Children\u2019s Museum of Art & Storytelling.<\/p>\n

The state will solely foot the bill that will balloon to $425 million by 2027 when 12,000 2-K seats become available across the city \u2014 with Hochul saying that funding will come from current tax revenues.<\/p>\n

A clear funding plan has not been laid out for future years, but Hochul, who faces re-election in November, said the initiative would be an ongoing priority for her as long as she\u2019s in office.<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s price tag is considerably higher than what families fork over on average each year to send their 18 month-to-2 year olds to child care centers across the five boroughs, according to a city comptroller\u2019s office report citing 2024 figures.<\/p>\n

Families pay about $23,400 for market-rate day care centers, the report released last year states.<\/p>\n

The roll out took place in Sugar Hill. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

Overall,\u00a0center-based care for infants and toddlers cost families an average of $26,000\u00a0per year, a 43% increase from 2019, the 2025 city comptroller report said.<\/p>\n

A City Hall rep said that the amount that families pay for care didn\u2019t necessarily equate what it costs to administer the program, but offered up no details about why the one run by the city would apparently be 55% more expensive per child. The spokesperson also couldn\u2019t provide a breakdown of how the $73 million would be spent.<\/p>\n

Mamdani and Hochul unveiled the new initiative for city 2-year-olds<\/a> \u2014 along with a buildup of existing free pre-K and 3-K programs \u2014 within days of the Democratic socialist mayor starting his four-year term after his universal child care pitch helped fuel his astronomical political ascension.<\/p>\n

In all, the expansion in early childhood programs will ultimately provide care for 100,000 more kids across the Empire State, officials have said. There are about 80,000 children aged 2 in the Big Apple currently, according to city health department data and the comptroller\u2019s office<\/p>\n

Free child care was a campaign promise of Mamdani. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

Mamdani lauded Hochul on Tuesday for fronting up the funds for the new handout even as he pleads with state lawmakers<\/a> to raise taxes on millionaires to help plug a $5.4 billion gap in the city budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have long known that child care is a priority for the governor,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a priority for parents here in our city, and now it\u2019s a priority in what we\u2019re delivering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents who live in the chosen five districts \u2014 representing each borough save for Staten Island \u2014 will have access to the first-of-its-kind program regardless of income or immigration status, Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

Those areas include: <\/p>\n

School District 6:\u00a0Washington Heights, Inwood, Hamilton Heights and parts of Manhattanville in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

School District 10:\u00a0Fordham, Belmont, Norwood, Marble Hill, Morris Heights, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge, and parts of Kingsbridge Heights, Bedford Park, Mount Hope, Claremont- Bathgate and East Tremont in The Bronx.<\/p>\n

School Districts 18 and 23:\u00a0Canarsie, Rugby-Remsen Village, Brownsville, Ocean Hill and parts of East Flatbush- Farragut and Prospect Lefferts Garden-Wingate in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

School District 27:\u00a0Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Howard Beach, Rockaways and parts Lindenwood and Springfield Gardens North in Queens.<\/p>\n

The application process is expected to open over the summer.<\/p>\n

Emmy Liss, the executive\u00a0director\u00a0of the Mayor\u2019s Office of\u00a0Child Care, said at a City Council hearing Monday that officials were partnering with current child care providers to help build the program up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be working with them this fall to make sure they are ready to operate,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taxpayers will shell out more than $36,000 per tot for Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s free 2-K pilot program \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3208,426,57,9,56,63,65,64,985,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-151724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-childcare","9":"tag-kathy-hochul","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-taxpayers","17":"tag-us-news","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}