New York’s plan for universal child care advanced as Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed new funding, including incentives for early educators and free college tuition for those committing to community child care. Yet, providers face razor-thin margins, federal funding freezes, and chronic payment delays; policymakers now promise salary parity and streamlined payments, apparently hoping providers can be paid before the children outgrow their cribs.
New York City in brief
Top five stories in the five boroughs today
A U.S. judge ordered the federal government to unfreeze payments for the $16 billion Gateway tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey, after a spat with the Trump administration over new Department of Transportation rules halted work and idled 1,000 workers. Funds are supposed to resume by Tuesday, though with Washington’s paperwork agility, we’ll be lucky if trains pass through before the next geological epoch.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani's team in New York City says 2,000 two-year-olds will receive free child care this fall—a tiny wedge in the door for his campaign’s pledge of universal access. With providers staggering under thin margins and parents facing $20,000 annual bills, officials are eyeing state budget crumbs and now surveying families and care centres. For now, we await details, though hope may still be more affordable than nursery school.
New York City agencies are scrambling to replace federal emergency housing vouchers—set to expire after a Trump-era funding cut—leaving some 7,500 households teetering on the edge of eviction. City departments cobbled together two-year help for around 2,000 families, but efforts by the New York City Housing Authority fizzled when Washington withheld new voucher funding. Budget woes mean that, for now, desperate tenants await that rarest of New York commodities: a long-term plan.
New York City schools are contorting to obey a 2022 state law capping class sizes at 25, with Chancellor Kamar Samuels lobbying Albany for $600 million more to avert “art on a cart” teaching—drama class in the cafeteria, anyone? While parents relish smaller groups, the city weighs closures and reshuffles, hoping the cure for overcrowding won’t upend everything else, or at least not during the school play.