Can Breed budget fulfill ‘Baby Prop. C’ promise?

San Francisco took a step closer to long-promised universal child care when Mayor London Breed’s proposed budget included a $120 million investment to open subsidized-care vouchers to more middle-income families.

Breed’s plan, introduced May 31, also included a pilot program for day care on weekends and weeknights to serve San Francisco parents who work nontraditional hours.

No U.S. city has implemented a universal child-care program to date — but Supervisor Myrna Melgar said San Francisco could be the first. Melgar, who is running for reelection in District 7 — which encompasses the West Portal and Lakeside neighborhoods — partnered with Breed to roll out early-childhood education programs.

Funding for vouchers and the proposed expansion comes from the “Baby Proposition C,” a tax on commercial real estate approved by voters in 2018, and Melgar said the investments will allow The City to create new child care spaces and retain educators to meet the roughly 25,000 families who would now be eligible for vouchers.

“We have the money in the bank. It’s been approved by the voters for this specific use,” she told The Examiner. “Now, we just need to do it.”

Child care remains the biggest cost for San Francisco families next to housing, even if both parents earn six-figure salaries. According to a 2023 analysis by the federal Department of Labor , San Francisco is the most expensive U.S. city in which to raise children — and families spend, on average, 20% of their household income on child-care expenses alone.

Currently, a family of four earning up to $158,500 — or 110% of the average median income — qualifies for subsidized care. But under Breed’s proposal, families of four earning up to $224,800 would qualify for free or reduced-cost daycare.

City officials considered San Francisco’s high cost of living when proposing the new income cap, said Ingrid Mezquita, Executive Director of the Department of Early Childhood, the agency tasked with implementing the expansion.

“$224,800 may not be considered middle income in other parts of the country, but here, where the cost of living is significantly higher, this income level may be considered middle income,” she told The Examiner. “Increasing the income threshold aims to extend support to families struggling with child-care costs despite earning what would be considered a relatively high income in other areas of the country.”

Mezquita said the pilot program for day care hours beyond the traditional 9-to-5 meets the needs of many parents, including those who work in law enforcement, health care and hospitality. She said the department is now developing guidelines for providers interested in enrolling in the pilot program.

Good Samaritan Family Resource Center Executive Director Mario Paz said there is “an incredible need” for this flexibility. His organization serves low-to moderate-income families in the Mission, many of whom work in the hospitality industry.

“This is something we’ve needed for a long, long time,” he said.

Paz said the reason after-hours’ care likely hasn’t been addressed until now is because “it’s very expensive” for a center to operate nontraditional hours. He said the investments Breed proposed will offer an opportunity for many families to access free care.

“You have to create differential pay scales, have to recruit staff that’s willing to work evenings or weekends, so it’s always been a difficult venture for any provider to be able to offer that,” he said. “San Francisco is really a model for this. The City is leading the way.”

Many more families would be eligible for free care through The City under Breed’s proposal. If the approved budget includes the plan, the Department of Early Childhood would likely have more applications to process. Melgar said that despite a sure influx of applications, parents with active applications for vouchers “shouldn’t be affected.”

“The problem in our system is not with the amount of time it takes to process the application,” she said. “That’s not what has led to a shortage of child care. The problem is that there’s not enough slots.”

Breed’s $120 million investment toward voucher expansion and after-hours day care will address this, Melgar said, although “there may be capacity issues” at the onset.

The day before Breed’s announcement, mayoral candidate Mark Farrell criticized her for “not fully utilizing taxes collected from Baby Prop. C.”

“Under Mayor Breed’s administration, the rollout of child care has been stalled,” Farrell said at a May 30 press conference. “Child care is too expensive and too hard to find. The status quo forces many parents, particularly mothers, to choose between their careers and caring for their children.”

Farrell, a former supervisor and interim mayor, said he would commit to improving access to child care for all families, regardless of income, on his first day if elected.

Universal child care is an ambitious undertaking that highlights systemic issues in early childhood education, a field in which teachers can make less than fast food workers, said Oscar Tang, who operates several day-care facilities throughout The City.

Tang, who is an advocate for higher wages for workers and more voucher access , said Breed’s proposal would be a sure benefit for families. He said child-care providers will be “closely monitoring” the expansion rollout.

“With more families [gaining access], I would think there will come capacity [issues],” he said. “This is a good thing for the community, but I’m thinking conservatively.”

Tang said he had other questions, wondering “how these new eligible families would view the current system. Is it enough?”

There are other considerations, too. Tang pointed out that early-intervention care — services that support children with learning disabilities — has its own capacity limitations, and that The City will need to explore a range of resources as it seeks to expand the number of day-care centers, which is also a facet of Breed’s proposal.

Melgar said The City will also roll out a plan to train and attract workers into the field and pay them living wages. This expansion is an important step for San Francisco, Melgar said, as it brings The City one step closer toward achieving something no other U.S. city has been able to do.

“San Francisco was the first on [legalizing] gay marriage, on universal health care,” she said. “We can be the first in universal child care, too.”