From left to right: Meribeth Densmore, deputy director of the Health and Human Services State Budget Division; Elizabeth Grodzinski, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Early Childhood Education and Care; Kelly Klundt, deputy director of the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee, presents the universal child care proposal to the Senate Finance Committee on January 29, 2026. A bill to create a universal child care program was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 17, 2026. (Danielle Prokop/Source NM)
Just after midnight Tuesday, a New Mexico House committee advanced a bill to implement universal child care that would require higher-income families to co-pay under certain economic conditions, such as unexpected school enrollment, inflation and falling gas prices.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham made a high-profile promise last year that New Mexico would be the first state to offer free, universal child care, but funding the program remains a sticking point during the 2026 legislative session.
The House Appropriations and Finance Committee passed Senate Bill 241, the Child Care Assistance Program Act, along party lines, making some changes to the bill the Senate passed last week.
The committee amended the bill to lower the amount the state can use from the $11 billion Early Childhood Education and Care Trust Fund to pay for the program over the next five years from $1 billion to $700 million. Money from the trust fund will still be used to address the variable costs of the program over the next five years.
The House amendment clarifies that tribal facilities can participate in the program along with public, private, nonprofit, for-profit and faith-based child care providers.
Finally, the bill would require all participating child care providers to implement wages based on teacher background and qualifications, something advocates pushed for during the session.
“This will really provide more stability and predictability in child care and address workforce pay issues,” Early Childhood Education and Care Secretary Elizabeth Grodzinski told lawmakers Monday night.
Republicans on the committee said that while the bill was an improvement, the program’s costs were still too high.
Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences) said paying for universal child care would impact the state’s budget and said she had “no confidence in the guardrails against cost inflation.”
“This is the launch of a universal entitlement program that requires no federal contributions, no employer contributions, no employee contributions,” Dow said at the committee meeting. “That puts a lot of pressure on all the other services that we have to go home and talk about as well, whether it’s senior care, personal care services or keeping rural facilities open.”
In a statement after the vote, House sponsor Rep. Doreen Gallegos (D-Las Cruces) called the bill a “high-quality, sustainable framework for universal child care.”
She said New Mexico “has been working for more than a decade to build the nation’s leading early childhood education and care system. Building a high-quality, sustainable framework for universal child care is our next big step forward.”
The bill will next go to the House of Representatives.
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