Economy
How Universal Pre-K Drives Up Families’ Infant-Care Costs
An unintended consequence of free school programs for three- and four-year-olds is a reduction in the supply of affordable child care for kids younger than two.
Bronx daycare owner Angela Salas suspects it’s no coincidence that ever since New York City’s free preschool program for three-year-olds arrived in her borough, her popular home-based child-care program has struggled.
It’s not for a lack of demand, says Salas: Her family daycare is as sought after as ever, with parents paying up to $385 a week. But with new, free public preschool available for three- and four-year-olds less than two miles away, the kids enrolling in Salas’s home-based program are now almost all very young. This makes for a costly business, as state regulation requires much heavier staffing for babies and toddlers than it does for older children. “I need to keep the three-year-olds in order to survive,” says Salas.