New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care • Hacker News Board

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#361

Post by harikb » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #336

mothballed wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would make sense IMO to provide an equal value waiver to those who take care of their kid rather than send them to childcare. Stay at home moms do not provide a less valuable service than childcare providers. This policy appears to disincentives children staying with their mother even when it is preferred.

I just don't understand this mentality. My wife is a stay-at-home mom. We are lucky that we can afford to do this. Most of our kid's friends have both parents working and they pay for child care. If suddenly they were able to have that childcare paid for, that would be wonderful! It doesn't affect our situation at all. Why would we oppose it? I don't need to have my own "waiver" payment in order for me to be in favor…

+1 This whole mentality of voucher system is selfish.

Even if we consider it as an "efficiency" problem, it is far cheaper for a person to be paid to take care of N children (where N is not too large), rather than have the have the mom, who is probably qualified in some other field, take care of just their children.

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#362

Post by Minor49er » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC

smeeth wrote: post #208

Minor49er wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hate to break it to you, but many kids actually do better away from their parents than with them. How so?

The most obvious example is the children of addicts. It’s hard to imagine a kid is better off stuck at home with druggie parents than spending the day in daycare.

Anyone would be better off being away from addicts though

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#363

Post by kenjackson » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC

wetoastfood wrote: post #196

declan_roberts wrote: post #122

I'm going to take the reverse position. I don't like this policy. I think it would be much better to provide a one year paid stipend so that a parent can be home with the children during their tender years. This entire structure is set up to keep the boss happy while a stranger raises your child during their most formative and vulnerable years.

Childcare doesn't end at 1 year though. If you look at public schools as child care, most don't start until kindergarten (about 5 years old). What do you do for the remaining 4 years? And during summer break? And after-school care? This program covers all of those. Forcing parents back into the workforce early is unfortunate and does need to be addressed. However, this program seems to be addressing a different and s…

6 years paid stipend would fix this problem.

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#364

Post by KetoManx64 » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC

ericfr11 wrote: post #307

KetoManx64 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't understand how economics work if you think this is actually going to be helpful. By providing "universal" child care, you just moved the cost of childcare from the individual to the tax base so now everyone has to pay an ineffifient system that often eats up 30-50% of the incoming money in bureaucratic inneficiencies before it will even reach the child care system. On top of that the increased taxes are goi…

I just use my bike: why should I pay taxes for roads maintenance. Unfortunately, a society is not just about economics

You wouldn't have to if the government didn't own the roads. Plenty of examples of this, private companies creating their own roads and charging people a small fee to use them so they can maintain them.

Wouldn't be that hard give people a little device that tracks the roads they use and charges them $0.05 per mile that they drive and then have the company be a co-op that's owned by the people living in that town.

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#365

Post by jtbayly » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:44 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #80

mothballed wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would make sense IMO to provide an equal value waiver to those who take care of their kid rather than send them to childcare. Stay at home moms do not provide a less valuable service than childcare providers. This policy appears to disincentives children staying with their mother even when it is preferred.

> Would make sense IMO to provide an equal value waiver to those who take care of their kid rather than send them to childcare. This is a great way to kill a policy. It would technically be most fair if every parent was given the same amount of money per child, period. Then they could do what they needed or wanted with it. But doing so would not only increase the costs dramatically (by a multiple) it would give money…

The real reason this is “bad” is because the policy actually being implemented is, as the GP comment demonstrates, to get women into the workforce. This requires the goal to be getting them out of the home away from their children. Thus, you must relatively penalize mothers who stay home and care for their children, which is what this policy does. Of course, it is worse for children, worse for families, worse for mothers, worse for just about everything except “business.”

Edit to add: It is only better for the business and the economy short term, because ultimately it results in a lower birth rate and below replacement level fertility is the main problem we currently have for the near-future economy

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#366

Post by _petronius » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:44 PM UTC

petcat wrote: post #40

bertili wrote: post #22

It baffles me (as European) that any politician, or informed voter, would stand up for non free child healthcare. Let alone the moral aspect of denying a child healthcare because she happen to be born into a low income family, it can’t possibly be economically advantageous for any society to ignore child healthy issues and it’s future.

This is not child healthcare. That is already free in every US state. This is free babysitting. The vast majority of the EU does not offer anything close to free universal early childhood care like this. None of Western Europe. I can think of only Latvia and Romania off the top of my head.

In Berlin I enjoy exceedingly cheap daycare for my kids (80€ for 2 per month, would be lower if I didn't pay the optional extra costs), as well as generous parental leave in the year after a child is born, with salary subsidy from the state.

This is not an unusual policy situation at all in Europe, although indeed not universal.

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#367

Post by voidfalcon » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:44 PM UTC

gamerDude wrote: post #328

Aurornis wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would make sense IMO to provide an equal value waiver to those who take care of their kid rather than send them to childcare. This is a great way to kill a policy. It would technically be most fair if every parent was given the same amount of money per child, period. Then they could do what they needed or wanted with it. But doing so would not only increase the costs dramatically (by a multiple) it would give money…

In Poland, they have a "universal child benefit" that pays a stipend for every child you have. They do pay for it and it is expensive, but apparently it made a large reduction in child poverty, so that's a win. From my understanding, it also reduced women in the workforce and reduced investment in childcare infrastructure since more mothers were then taking care of children at home. So this is possible, it just depen…

The US has a similar thing with the child tax credit. It looks like Poland pays out the equivalent of about 220 a month while the child tax credit pays the equivalent of $180 per month. If you only count the refundable portion it is $140. Relative to the cost of living its worse, but the concept seems similar.

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#368

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:45 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #39

Nifty3929 wrote: post #15

It's easy to promise things, but hard to deliver them. How can the state "guarantee no-cost universal child?" Will the state provide the child care itself? Or will the attempt to provide funding, relying on the private market to provide the service. Are there a bunch of underworked child care providers just waiting around for new customers? Or would they expect the child care industry to go on a hiring spree? Regardl…

> How can the state "guarantee no-cost universal child?" How can any state “guarantee no-cost schooling for all children”? Well, they do, so it’s clearly possible. Why would early childhood be any different? > everything comes at the cost of something we could have had instead Of course. That’s the nature of spending money. Your talking points here don’t really amount to much beyond “better things aren’t possible”.

[deleted]

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#369

Post by toomuchtodo » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:45 PM UTC

evantbyrne wrote: post #347

toomuchtodo wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sixty percent of Americans cannot afford a basic quality of life on their income in the US [1] [2]. Half of American renters are cost burdened [3]. I find it wild someone thinks "Why don't you just stay home with your kids?" looking at the macro. Can't all just live on a farm and homestead to raise kids in an unfavorable, punishing macro. Parents work because they have to work. To work, they need childcare and flexib…

Nobody said homesteading is the solution. Allowing a parent of young children to care for them is not a radical idea though. It should not be hard to imagine a society that is more flexible to childcare being performed by parents, because that was the norm for all of human history prior to industrialization. People should seriously consider the ways in which their imaginations on this subject (and others!) are constr…

Indeed, this only occurs with unions and rising wages, where a single income from a secure job can support a family while a parent stays home to perform childrearing. Are we there? When will we get there? These are important questions to ask if this is a dependency to improving household financials to encourage the outcome in this context (a stay at home parent).

If jobs are tenuous or insecure, long term financial obligations will not be made (the cost to raise a child in 2023 dollars is $330k, not including childcare or college). If jobs do not pay enough, people will need to put their kids in childcare (which will have to be subsidized) or they will forgo having children [1] [2].

[1] https://www.marketplace.org/story/2024/07/29/fewer-adults-ha...

[2] https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/reasons...

Re: New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care

#370

Post by hnlmorg » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:45 PM UTC

programjames wrote: post #282

hnlmorg wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. There are so many benefits to day care for the children. It’s hardly the prison camp people make it out to be. I don’t know if these negative comments are because HN in general dislikes the wider educational system, or if it’s because they dislike governments handing out “charity” to help less affluent families. Maybe a touch of both? But daycare can actually be a really rewarding experience for childre…

For me at least, it's a general dislike of the wider educational system. My parents taught me to read, play chess, multiply, and write in cursive before elementary school. I didn't really learn anything at preschool or kindergarten, and I imagine daycare would be worse for my educational development. Maybe it's useful for social development? but at least for me I was always pretty independent (even in kindergarten) f…

This might be a difference between the US and UK?

Preschools in the UK have curriculums they have to follow. That includes maths, reading and writing too.

I’m not going to comment on preschools in your country, but in the UK the kids who attended preschool are IN GENERAL the stronger students, socially, emotionally, and academically, when it comes to starting infants/ elementary school. Particularly in the less affluent areas. Though there might be some selection bias here too due to the kinds of parents who can sand their child to daycare verses those who cannot.