Opinion: Lowering childcare costs in the Hudson Valley

I know as well as anyone that being a parent is beyond a full-time job. At a time when Hudson Valley families are working as hard as they can, doing everything right, but still can’t afford basic necessities, the last thing they should have to worry about is making sure their kids are well taken care of.

I fought back hard when Trump tried to rip away childcare funding from our community – but there’s still a lot of work to do. I heard from parents unsure how much longer they can make ends meet and from providers who love taking care of kids but are left with no option but to switch professions in order to pay their bills. Childcare isn’t a luxury item – it’s a necessity for so many parents, but the system is broken. I’m proud and grateful to get to collaborate with these community members on how we can lower costs for families in the Hudson Valley and beyond.

In early 2026, several states, including New York, faced freezes on Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) dollars due to bogus Trump-originated federal fraud investigations, threatening subsidies for over 10 billion dollars in social services.

For many American families, childcare is now the single largest household expense, often exceeding mortgage or rent payments. The national average for full-time center-based care for an infant has reached $14,802 per year in the US. Childcare costs in New York are among the highest. While the Department of Health and Human Services suggests childcare should cost no more than seven percent of a family’s income, single parents currently spend an average of 35 percent of their income on care, and married couples spend approximately 10 percent. In 2025, 70 percent of parents reported that raising children had become “too expensive,” a 13-point increase from the previous year.

The lack of child care is a primary driver of workforce participation issues – approximately 81 percent of parents who struggled to find care in 2025 reported that it directly impacted their ability to work.

The supply of care is dwindling as providers struggle to remain solvent while paying competitive wages. More than 50 percent of Americans live in a “childcare desert,” where there are more than three children for every one available slot. Nearly 40 percent of childcare providers report current staffing shortages. The median hourly wage for child care workers remains stagnant at $15, leading to a 70 percent difficulty rate for workers in meeting their own basic needs like food and housing.

Pat Ryan
U.S. Representative, 18th Congressional District