When Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George and her husband were looking for child care for their infant son Pierce last year, they faced a common D.C. realization: sticker shock.
“We did the whole tour for different child care centers, and at the end of every one, you’re like, ‘What’s the cost?’ I think the highest I got was probably $2,850 [per month]. I was like, ‘I’m sorry, say that again?’ she says. “It’s insane.”
And that’s not that far out of the norm for D.C. According to Child Care Aware of America, residents here will pay, on average, between $21,000 and $26,000 a year for an infant, depending on whether they choose home-based care or a child care center. That makes D.C. among the most expensive places in the country for child care, eating up roughly 11% of the median married couple’s income — and almost half of what the median single parent makes. (And that's for a single kid; the numbers are worse for two.)
Now Lewis George says that if she’s elected mayor, she’ll set out to make child care universal and affordable, part of a broader plan she’s rolling out to bring down everyday costs for D.C. residents.
The heart of her plan is to expand an existing child care subsidy for low-income families so that it eventually covers everyone, with the end goal being that no one pays more than 7% of their income on child care. For a family of three making $100,000 a year, that means they would pay no more than $7,000 annually — less than $600 a month.
Lewis George also wants to expand child care offerings and help cut down operating expenses by co-locating more child care centers in underutilized school buildings. (It's already happening in a handful of places in the city.) She also wants care provided by families, friends, and neighbors to become more professional and to expand their eligibility to receive subsidies. At the same time, she says she’ll continue pushing to increase child care worker wages — they’re currently between $51,000 and $75,000 a year, depending on education level — until they reach parity with teachers in DCPS.
“I hear how big of a problem it is for families, or employers, and businesses,” she says. “This is actually a problem we can solve.”
But it’s also notable for one word that’s missing: free.
In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani cruised to victory in part because of a pledge to make child care free — a campaign promise that is already moving towards becoming reality, starting with two-year-olds. And here in D.C., Ward 1 council candidate Aparna Raj has similarly promised to do something about child care — by making it free for kids aged three months to three years. Both Mamdani and Raj identify as democratic socialists — as does Lewis George.
Whether it’s a push towards moderation to appeal to more D.C. voters or a nod to the challenging fiscal reality the city faces in the coming years, Lewis George says her plan is responsive and achievable.
“People have said to me, ‘We don't want free child care. We just want affordable child care,’” she says. “And so under my plan of universal affordable child care, we'll build on basically what's working. We're halfway there, so this makes it even more feasible when people say it's not possible.”
Lewis George is referring to the Birth-to-3 Act, a sweeping law passed by the D.C. Council in 2018 to expand child care options, bring down prices, and pay providers better wages. (It was meant as an expansion of D.C.’s successful and popular free pre-K for three- and four-year-olds.) It aimed to slowly expand the child care subsidy program so that eventually every family, regardless of income, would be eligible. Currently, a family of four making just under $50,000 pays nothing out of pocket, while one making up to $94,000 would be responsible for a modest co-pay. When the bill was passed, it phased in the expansion of the subsidy program so that by 2028 no family paid more than 10% of their income towards child care — a percentage Lewis George hopes to reduce further.
Still, with a slowing economy and the flush budgets of years past looking like a distant memory, portions of the Birth-to-3 Act — and Lewis George’s hopes to build on it — are under threat. In 2024, Mayor Muriel Bowser tried to raid the $74 million Pay Equity Fund that’s used to increase child care worker salaries. The council stopped her, and last year she left it alone — but zeroed it out for 2027. That means the council will likely have to make tough decisions in the next few months — when Bowser unveils her final budget — if lawmakers want to save the fund.
Erica Greenberg, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who has extensively studied D.C.’s child care system, says the city has been one of the most innovative places in the country when it comes to expanding options for parents while pushing to decrease costs, and increase wages for workers. She also says the push for universal affordable child care is a “logical next step.”
But Greenberg says the budget uncertainty in recent years has led to a “constant feeling that we have documented among the child care community of having to fight every year to preserve the investments that were made.”
Anne Gunderson, a senior policy analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, which is part of the Under 3 D.C. Coalition, says that advocates are pushing for an infusion of money for the child care subsidy program and the Pay Equity Fund.
“We’re really walking into one of our most challenging years for child care and underfunding for the child care subsidy. For the subsidy, we need an additional $30 [million] just to maintain current case load, and $50 million for continued growth,” she says. “Many people believe the Pay Equity Fund costs $70 million [a year], but that has never represented the true cost. We’re asking for $94.2 million to get salaries back to parity with DCPS.”
Lewis George says she understands the fiscal challenges, and will prioritize finding ways to pay for the continued push towards universal affordable child care.
“The intention is to do this without raising taxes on working people. D.C. implemented universal pre-K without raising taxes. So as mayor I'm going to take a look at our budget, make an honest assessment. We're gonna look at cutting budget waste, and we're also looking at ending tax loopholes for big businesses and corporations that don't pay their fair share.”
Greenberg points to one more challenge: Birth rates have started falling off in D.C., and pre-pandemic commuting patterns that brought more people into D.C. — and thus in the market for daily child care options in the city — have changed.
“We heard in a recent set of interviews with 25 child care leaders that we’re in this period of transition where there is potentially an oversupply of child care in general, which is virtually unheard of in the rest of the country,” she said. Still, Greenberg added, there could potentially still be an undersupply of options in certain neighborhoods and for specific types of care, such as non-traditional hours.
Lewis George says her plan also contemplates options to formalize child care that may be provided by friends, families, and neighbors. She says it’s something she’s personally aware of; when she was growing up her mother worked nights, and it was left to Lewis George’s sister to watch her. “You have a lot of family, friend, and neighbor care already happening in the city, but all of those people are not trained,” she says.
Despite the fiscal challenges coming in the next few years, Gunderson says she’s encouraged that child care might be a topic of debate in the upcoming elections.
“We need committed politicians in office,” she says. “We’re excited that child care is front of mind.”
With your help, we pursue stories that hold leaders to account, demystify opaque city and civic processes, and celebrate the idiosyncrasies that make us proud to call D.C. home. Put simply, our mission is to make it easier — and more fun — to live in the District. Our members help keep local news free and independent for all:
