B-roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Visits Childcare Center in Queens to Highlight Her Proposal to Deliver Universal Childcare

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul visited a childcare center in Queens to highlight her proposal to deliver universal childcare.

B-ROLL of the Governor at York College Child and Family Center and interacting with children is available to stream on Youtube here and in TV quality video (h.264, mp4) here.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 One of the best things I ever get to do in this job is to play with children, especially three-year-olds, because I happen to be a three-year-old expert with a three-year-old grandchild. And I just spent time going from room to room in this incredible place at the York College Childcare and Family Center, a place that is welcoming and warm and loving and that's what I took away from this. And I just want to expand this to even more children.

I want to thank Charlene Dertinger, the Executive Director of this wonderful place for welcoming me and making me feel right at home here with the beautiful children. Senator Leroy Comrie, who's been a great champion for his district and many more projects that he has pushed us to do are going to be underway. And I thank him for his leadership. Of course, thinking of leadership, we have an extraordinary leader of the CUNY system, our Chancellor, Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, and our President of your college, Claudia V. Schrader.

So, this will be brief. I just want to talk about kids, because when we invest in our kids, we're investing not just in their future, but the future of our state.

And I'm glad to be back here to talk about something we all agree on. Young families, even when I was - believe it or not - part of a young family many years ago, trying to start out and raise a family, it was hard when we couldn't find childcare that was affordable or just even available and had to leave a job that I loved. It took me a long time to get to that position, and then I had to walk away from it because my children had to come first.

Today, too many families are faced with - number one, do we even have a child? Can we afford a child in this day and age, or do we put off our careers and our dreams, or how do we just really make life even harder by trying to manage the cost of the diapers and the formulas and the little clothes that change every three months, literally? So I know those struggles personally. And now to see as a grandma, my own kids going through that and their friends, it is hard to say that we have not figured this out in literally generations, but that stops now.

We have an aggressive, bold, ambitious plan to make sure that our children are well cared for and have the benefit of early childhood education, but also addressing the cost. For a family in New York City, right here in Queens contemplating their own family and paying for childcare. It can be upwards of $26,000 to $40,000 per year per child. It doesn't add up if you're a minimum wage worker or you're starting out in your career, it doesn't work out for you here in New York.

And that puts us at a huge competitive disadvantage for lower cost states. I don't want any more families to leave New York. I want them to know this is their home and we welcome them. We want them to stay, but we have to work as a government to make life more affordable for them. Something I've been laser focused on for years.

So now, I've already invested $8 billion in childcare over the last four years as your Governor, and I'm proud to team up with the newly elected Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, to realize his plan for what he wants to see and build on programs that have been in place here in New York City, but never reach their full potential. What we're talking about is with state assistance helping and opening up the slots we need for the 3K program right sizing it, putting the slots where there's demand and figuring that part of it out, which is one of his top priorities.

But then why not start getting going on a program that is going to take care of our two year olds as well, the 2-Care programs. So we'll fully fund that. The State of New York has committed, fully funding that, not just this year, which is what normal budgeting is, but I've already taken this unprecedented step of committing next year as well. So they can count on this money for the duration.

They've launched a program - or we'll be launching a program in four priority districts, and we're going to be watching closely how to operationalize that and to scale that up throughout the city. So I'm very excited about that as well. Statewide, we have the rest of the state, not as far ahead as New York City was when having universal four-year-old programs and three-year-old programs. So I have declared that by 2028, the entire State of New York, will be offering for every parent of a four-year-old the availability of a 4K program, either in their schools or in partnership with local providers. That's how we get on the path. But also at the same time, I announced this in Poughkeepsie yesterday, that we're going to invest in three pilot programs in Dutchess County and Monroe County and Broome County to start with newborns to three-year-olds and support community-based programming there as well.

So this year alone, we're talking about a major investment of $4.5 billion investing in our kids. I think that's smart money, and everyone should agree. This is going to change the lives of thousands of families and children across New York, and I'm really excited about making sure that this happens. And also, one more point, it's not just for the families.

When I was starting out, the thought was, "This is you and your family's problem. You wanted to have a family. You figured it out." Society didn't seem to care and certainly businesses didn't think it was their problem. This is one area I've seen a dramatic shift. Businesses know that they can be more competitive when they can open up their opportunities to everyone who wants to work, including a lot of the women who end up being the ones as primary caregivers who have to - or the ones we have to sacrifice.

So, this is good for business and we're also going to be working with businesses to incentivize them to provide either onsite childcare, give them what they need to make this happen or other opportunities they have because they're vested in this as well. When our parents go back to work, the economy roars, New York State is going to continue to realize its full potential, and I'm very excited about that as well. So, we continue our journey to talk about something that is one of my top priorities, but also one of my favorite topics, which is how we take care of our children. Thank you.

Contact the Governor's Press Office