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The election of Zohran Mamdani represents a number of breakthrough moments for New Yorkers. For the first time, their mayor will be a Muslim and someone of South Asian descent, also African-born. At 34, he is the youngest person in more than a century to hold the position.
But what will matter the most is how he intends to govern. And for that, those living in the Big Apple need to look at his campaign pledge to make the U.S. capital of capitalism more affordable.
Of all of Mamdani’s campaign promises, free high-quality child care could be the most transformative, argues labor scholar Simon Black. Child care in the city is expensive: 80% of New York families with young children can’t afford the average annual cost of $26,000.
But New York has long served as an example to the nation on child care, Black explains. In 1941, for example, New York became the only U.S. city to provide publicly subsidized child care services. And even before Mamdani’s ascent, the city today has the largest publicly supported system in the country.
Polls show a majority of both Democrat and Republican voters agree that the cost of child care is a major problem and want politicians to do more about it. “If he can find the money to pay for it, with universal child care, Mamdani could blaze a trail that other policymakers follow,” writes Black.
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