Democratic Socialists of America pols are demanding full-day, “free pre-teen care for all” statewide – with taxpayers footing the $13 billion annual tab, The Post has learned.
Brooklyn state Sen. Jabari Brisport told fellow comrades during an NYC DSA “Tax the Rich” powwow last week that the universal childcare system the party wants goes far beyond what Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned for — serving children from six weeks to 12 years old.
Mamdani’s scheme calls for free universal childcare for kids six weeks to 5 years old.
Brisport estimated the cost of the pie-in-the-sky proposal would range from $8 billion to $13 billion yearly – double or triple the $4.5 billion Gov. Kathy Hochul has set aside to fund free childcare statewide next fiscal year.
The city already provides free childcare and preschool from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for 3- and 4-year-olds through its 3-K and pre-K programs, but the DSA wants a “truly universal system” that extends through regular business hours to help working parents, insisted Brisport.
“It is a full day,” he said. “It does not end in the middle of the day when you’re still at work, and . . . at a bare minimum includes $1.2 billion to begin raising pay for the childcare workers.”
Brisport did not say where the massive sum would come from.
Critics like Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) said the DSA must be confusing cash-strapped New Yorkers for an ATM machine.
“Our taxpayers are already burdened enough as it is, and now the DSA wants to basically double the deficit, so they can start their extracurricular indoctrination of the next generation straight from the womb until junior high school,” she said.
“This is ridiculous. Money doesn’t grow on trees, and New York City’s taxpayers should not have to shoulder this additional cost, so our children can be fed left-wing propaganda alongside their bottles every morning.”
Mamdani wants the state to tax millionaires and corporations to fund his universal childcare plan and other lefty pet projects, but Hochul has opposed the idea and, instead, proposed tapping into existing revenue.
Hizzoner has been vague on specifics but said his plan was inspired by Quebec’s.
The Canadian province offers parents low-cost childcare at $9.35 a day for kids from birth through 12 years old, including home-based and after-school care.
Both the moderate Dem governor and socialist Mamdani earlier this month announced the state would put up $73 million to fund NYC’s first 2,000 free preschool seats for 2-year olds beginning this fall. That’s $36,500 per seat – or 41% above the average yearly cost of private childcare in the city.
The state plans to kick in another $425 million in fall 2027 to fund another 12,000 2-K seats.
Doug Kellogg, state projects director of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, said Brisport’s revelation about the DSA’s true goals for free childcare “should make it clear New York is a five-alarm catastrophe” with “socialists driving policy.”
“Only a socialist could push to spend $8 billion-plus on top of the billions Gov. Hochul has already proposed for childcare expansion,” he said. “And that is piled on [top of] New York’s highest-in-the-nation, per-pupil spending for first- through sixth-graders.
“This is duplicative, wasteful, offensive, and unaffordable for taxpayers. It is radical socialist ideas like this that are fueling the slew of tax hikes proposed in Albany, on everything from crypto and gold to helicopter rides.”
The Mayor’s Office and the Governor’s Office did not return messages.