New Mexico could soon require co-pays for high-earning families using universal childcare program

High-earning New Mexico families could soon pay monthly fees to keep their kids in the state’s first-in-the-nation universal childcare program.

The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department will hold a hybrid public hearing from 9 to 11 a.m. on Dec. 3 in Santa Fe and online, regarding a proposal to require co-pays for high-earning families. The department is also accepting public feedback on the proposal by email.

The law establishing New Mexico’s universal childcare program specified that co-pays would take effect only in times of economic downturn, and that they would apply to families who make at least six times the federal poverty level — $163,920 for a family of three and $198,000 for a family of four.

Under the current proposal, those families could see monthly co-pays of $15 to $99 for one child, depending on their income level, and $22.50 to $148.50 for two or more children.

In a statement provided to Source NM, ECECD spokesperson Julia Sclafani said national inflation levels are responsible for the proposed co-pays, which would affect about 10% of families who participate in universal childcare.

“Under the Child Care Assistance Program Act, copay for families at the highest income levels take effect when certain national economic conditions are met. Those conditions have nothing to do with the health of the Early Childhood Trust Fund or the state budget,” she said.

During this year’s legislative session, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham criticized proposals to require co-pays — including one from the state House of Representatives that would have set a lower income threshold for the payments — as being, by definition, not universal. Sclafani said Lujan Grisham still opposes the co-pays.

“If anything, inflation makes it harder for households to take on additional bills,” she said. “ECECD is doing everything within its authority to limit the impact on them. Universal childcare is working, it is sustainable, and this administration will keep fighting to protect it.”

The rulemaking hearing is scheduled just weeks before Democratic Gov.-elect Deb Haaland is set to take office. On the campaign trail, she frequently cited her experience as a single working mother when expressing her support for the program.

When asked at a news conference last week whether she would support co-pays, she told reporters that she hoped to spare families from the payments “to the extent that we can.”

“It’s an economic driver for our state,” she said. “To the extent that we can keep anyone from having to make co-pays for early childhood education, I think we want to see if we can do that. This benefits our children.”