New Mexico governor announces expansion of free child care

Apr. 29—New Mexico families earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty line — $111,000 a year for a household of four — will be able to send their children to day care and preschool programs for free beginning Sunday as the state launches a massive expansion of copay waivers for child care assistance.

"It's free," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced at a news conference Thursday at East Gate Kids Early Learning Center in Albuquerque. "No more copays, no waiting. No more."

Previous eligibility rules waived child care assistance copays for families earning 200 percent of the poverty line — around $55,500 for a family of four.

The expansion draws on about $40 million in federal pandemic relief funds and follows the state's July 2021 announcement it would use $320 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to extend child care assistance to families earning up to 350 percent of the poverty line. Families who enter the program and then see their household income increase to 400 percent of the poverty line can continue receiving assistance.

The new change means preschool and other early childhood programs will come at no cost for all families enrolled in the state's child care assistance program.

"No other state has ever created a child care assistance program that would provide free child care to such a broad cross section to families in the state," said Micah McCoy, a spokesman for the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department. "This is a pretty huge step forward in the United States because we just haven't thought of child care as something that should be free and accessible."

McCoy said the new expansion — set to boost the number of families eligible for free child care to about 30,000 from 10,000 — likely will provide a similar income increase cushion as the July expansion. The amount for that has not yet been decided.

In a news release, Lujan Grisham's office called the expansion of child care copay waivers, combined with initiatives such as new investments in the Opportunity Scholarship for college students, the beginning of a cost-free, "cradle to career" education system.

Funding now allocated for the copay waivers is set to last through the end of fiscal year 2023. But McCoy said the early childhood department is hoping to maintain the waivers using money from the state's Early Childhood Trust Fund or the Land Grant Permanent Fund.

In November, voters across the state will decide whether to approve an increase in withdrawals from the land grant endowment to support early child programs.

Currently, a family of four earning $62,438 annually would face a monthly copay of up to $804 for full-time care for two children. A family earning $83,250 would pay as much as $1,416.

Katherine Freeman, president and CEO of Santa Fe-based Growing Up New Mexico, said the state initiative waiving copays for more families is good news for the nonprofit's child care center, the Early Learning Center at Kaune.

"It will help our families that we have at Kaune a great deal," Freeman said. "I would say most of our families have been unable to pay a copay always."

Freeman said Growing Up New Mexico often relies on private fundraising to cover costs for families that aren't eligible for copay waivers.

Kate Noble, Growing Up New Mexico's vice president of policy and stakeholder development, said the expansion could help boost New Mexico's economy and relieve families who may be skipping out on other needs to cover child care costs.

"As we look at recovering the economy, to say child care can be free for working families ... is very important for getting folks back to work," said Noble, who also serves as a Santa Fe school board member.

Noble and Freeman contend, however, the expansion could put extra weight on a strained child care system in which wait lists are long and staff vacancies are high.

McCoy said it's hard to predict whether the expansion will increase the number of families seeking child care.

"That is partially why we're rolling it out with other initiatives designed to create or expand existing supply," he said.

The Early Childhood Education and Care Department is allocating $10 million for grants to expand child care capacity in different areas of New Mexico, the state announced Thursday. The grants, available to employers and child care providers, could open up 800 more spots for children.

The application process for the grants is expected to open in coming weeks, McCoy said, but there will be a delay between the investments and the increased capacity.

"The kingpin here is workforce," Freeman said. "Unless we get really good workforce development plans, we can build all the rooms we want. But we can't staff them."

Noble and Freeman were most excited about a seemingly smaller investment they believe will make the biggest difference: a stipend for people pursuing degrees in early childhood education at public colleges and universities in New Mexico. That program will take effect May 5.

The stipends will provide $2,000 a semester and replace an existing scholarship program run through the Early Childhood Education and Care Department.

Noble said the money most likely will end up in the pockets of working moms, who largely make up the child care industry in New Mexico. The National Women's Law Center estimated women made up 95 percent of the child care workforce nationwide in 2020. Black and Latina women were overrepresented in the pool, with each group making up about 20 percent of the workforce.

At Kaune, Freeman estimates workers often take up to nine years to earn their higher education credentials as they juggle the demands of work, school and parenting.

She and Noble both hope the stipend will ease the burden for working students and help them finish programs more quickly to meet urgent demands.

"The $2,000 stipend is a big deal," Noble said. "All the things that come with being a working parent in school can be made somewhat easier with cash money. And that's who the workforce is. It's not blanket, but it's probably 95 percent."

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