Mamdani charges ahead with another careless promise: Unfunded NYC 2-K

As Mayor Mamdani touts progress in expanding “free” childcare, the bills for his socialist ambitions keep growing.He hasn’t come up with a plan to pay for it all — other than, of course, betting that Albany will let him hike taxes.Look at childcare: The city’s pre-K and 3-K programs run partly through private providers who say the city pays them less than the work costs.One Brooklyn preschool owner told Intelligencer this week that her last contract funded assistant teachers at $30,000, with no health insurance.According to the city comptroller’s 2024 review, 90% of certified lead childcare teachers with master’s degrees and at least a year of experience earned less than Department of Education peers.The city lost 1,300 family daycare providers after pre-K and 3-K rolled out, the Center for New York City Affairs wrote — and as the program expands to cover 2-year-olds, more providers are wondering how they’ll make ends meet.For years, NYC’s early-childhood programs have been plagued by delayed payments to providers, supply-demand mismatches and management failures.Mamdani only started addressing these nuts-and-bolts issues in August, yet he wants to expand.All told, his universal childcare program would cost an eyewatering $9 billion annually.He’s repeating what Mayor Bill de Blasio did with 3-K: announcing a big initiative without securing the necessary funding first.If state funding runs out, Mamdani doesn’t have a plan to ensure that families will continue to receive the care they now rely on.He’s betting that Gov.Hochul won’t want to be the one to take childcare away.But the deeper problem goes to the heart of the larger socialist agenda: promising ever-richer government benefits — free buses, universal childcare, city-run grocery stores and, eventually, the dream of single-payer healthcare — while outrunning the economic base that pays for it all.Remember candidate Mamdani’s pledge for free buses? That stalled as soon as Mayor...