> it would make child care free for families that don't appear to need it, like a family of four making $111k a year (in a state with low cost of living), twice

> it would make child care free for families that don't appear to need it, like a family of four making $111k a year (in a state with low cost of living), twice the state's median income. I was wondering exactly how low cost of living NM is. Infant/Toddler daycare in my high COL city costs between 24k-33k a year. Albuquerque is 1/3rd of that. Damn. Also > But the national average cost of child care – $10,600 annually Is a horrible statistic. What type of child care? Full day toddler? Elementary after school program? Did they all get averaged together? Ugh. Anyway, figure 111k a year, maybe 80k after taxes and savings, two kids, so that is still 20k a year, or 20% of the family's take home income. The real reason for these programs is that quality (or even just "not terrible) child care shows dramatic improvements in lifelong cognitive abilities. That, ideally, results in higher earning potential and then more taxes going back to the government long term. Lots of secondary effects of course, lower crime, a workforce better able to meet the needs of an information economy (assuming we aren't replaced by ai), etc, etc.