By SHERRY ROBINSON
All She Wrote
© 2025 New Mexico News Services
Back in September, the governor announced that on Nov. 1 New Mexico would become the first state to offer universal childcare. We made national headlines. It would be a huge benefit to working families and employers, of course, but legislative budget makers are starting to ask hard questions about costs. And they should.
This is when I like to remind readers that I’m not Hard Hearted Hannah.
When I was a single mom on reporter wages, day care took such a big bite out of my paycheck that I had almost nothing left after rent and groceries. I didn’t resent the day care providers because I knew they were just trying to survive.
So, I’ve been down that road and see the need, but I have a few problems with the idea.
Under this program, the state will offer free childcare to everyone, no matter how much they make. It will save families an average of $12,000 a year per child. What we’ve had since 2021 is a cap of 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $120,000 a year for a family of four.
New Mexico has nowhere near the capacity to add the predicted 12,000 babies and toddlers to a program that now serves 27,000 kids. Typically, there are three applications for every opening, and some areas are day care deserts. But under the new program local governments and schools can apply for low-interest loans to expand or create new facilities.
Elizabeth Groginsky, secretary of the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD), projects 55 new childcare centers and 1,000 new in-home providers.
Childcare workers will make more money (we hope). Reimbursement rates to providers, according to the state’s news release, “will rise to reflect the true cost of care. Programs that commit to paying entry-level staff a minimum of $18 per hour and offer 10 hours of care per day, five days a week, will receive an incentive rate.” Groginsky expects better pay to help recruit the additional 5,000 early childhood professionals that will be needed.
The governor intends to pay for all this from the Early Childhood Education Trust Fund. Created by a Constitutional Amendment in 2022, it’s ballooned from $300 million to $10 billion. (Thank you, oil and gas industry.) In addition, legislators increased the department’s budget by $113 million to $995 million; of that, $463 million is for childcare.
Notice that the governor didn’t ask lawmakers for their blessings before launching the new program, but she’s counting on their support. And the ask just increased. The department raised reimbursement rates following feedback from day-care providers, which bumped up its funding request for the next legislative session from $120 million to $156 million, reported the Albuquerque Journal.
Rep. Nathan Small, chair of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, said the ECECD budget will get close scrutiny.
Sen. George Muñoz, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has a problem with the agencies’ approach to funding. “They announce initiatives but don’t know how to pay for them and leave it up to us,” he told me. “They make the Legislature the bad guy.”
When I spoke to Rep. Patty Lundstrom recently, she brought up universal childcare and asked, “How are we supposed to budget for that?” As co-chair of the legislative Federal Funding Stabilization Subcommittee, she was astounded that the governor would kick off universal childcare or any other new program at a time when the state faces daunting demands due to federal funding cuts.
As I write this, the state is scrambling to protect 450,000 New Mexicans who will lose SNAP (food stamp) benefits. Because of the federal government shutdown, states are out of money, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has refused to use its reserves to extend aid.
I agree with these legislators who know they’re in for a difficult session and a lot of tough decisions. I also question why I as a taxpayer should subsidize the day care of people making more money than I do.
What we see here is a governor heading into her final year as the state’s chief executive. She has her legacy in mind. Universal childcare would be a dandy legacy during normal times. These are not normal times.