New Mexico — long ranked worst in the U.S. for child wellbeing — became the first state to make childcare free for most families. The result? 120,000 people rose above the poverty line.
This wasn’t a moonshot. It was a single policy shift that removed a massive, structural bottleneck — one that millions of us face every day.
If you’ve ever tried building, working, or even thinking clearly while managing childcare, you know how hard it gets. For many, the constraint isn’t talent or effort — it’s whether they can safely hand off their kid long enough to get anything done.
