Denver Mayor: Unlike NYC, Our Universal Childcare Program Would Definitely Not Cost ‘Billions’

EXCERPT:

JOHNSTON: “Ours will definitely not be in the billions. There'll be no cost at that scale. And I think that for us, it will depend on what kind of care parents want. As you heard, we want to really talk to family members and say, what do you need most? For a lot of families, it's not Monday-Friday, 9-3. It might be you need evenings because you have a night shift. It might be you need weekends. It might mean you only need three days a week because you have a mother-in-law who covers two days a week. We want to build a system that's responsive to what our family's needs are. A lot of them get care in what we would call family, friends, and neighbors, like the spot that you described earlier. It's not always a licensed care site. So we want to build a full framework that serves all those families, and then figure out how we can make the most affordable cost structure to deliver that. But we're confident that is well south of a billion dollars for Denver.”