Beavers build dams even when they are not needed and even when they do no good. Even in captivity, the sound of running water compels them to try to build a dam. They can’t help themselves. That’s what they do.
So it is with Democrats and day care facilities.
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If the word “family” is mentioned, or “affordability,” every Democratic politician in earshot will start gathering up taxpayer money like so many tree trunks to try to build a day care.
New York City gives us a particularly absurd example.
“Empty NYC Pre-Schools Cost Taxpayers Nearly $100M in Rent Alone,” the New York Post reported in an April headline.
City officials explained that one unused pre-K center in Queens for 3-year-olds, “estimated to cost $10.8 million, [was] placed in a section of the city that already had trouble filling existing early childhood education seats. … Another vacant site is located within blocks of four existing 3-K centers in Rego Park, Queens.”
But like beavers, they keep building.
The New York State Comptroller reported in January, “Enrollment in the City’s 3-K and Pre-K programs declined in FY 2025, suggesting the programs may be reaching a saturation point. … Population declines have also meant flat or declining enrollment in the City’s public school programs, including Pre-K and 3-K.”
In 2020, the city was home to more than 106,000 children under age 5. By 2024, the number had dropped to 85,000. The lockdown was a huge culprit: Parents fled the city’s high rents for greener pastures when their kids’ teachers refused to show up and teach for a year.
There is no reason to expect a child rebound in the five boroughs: Births in each of the first 9 months of 2025 were lower than the same period in 2024.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. Only a small minority of parents of babies and toddlers want to work full-time and rely on a child care center. All the surveys show that. Most parents want mom and dad to take some time off work to care for the little one and to rely on family, friends, or informal day care to plug the holes.
Why are political and media elites so intent on building day care facilities where there is little to no day care demand?
THE TRUE SHAPE OF THE BABY BUST
Well, because the elites are the ones who want the day cares. Yes, there are parts of New York City where day care demand outstrips the supply, but they’re not in Queens or the Bronx. They are in Manhattan’s Upper West Side and Brooklyn’s Park Slope, where the columnists of the New York Times and the aides to the mayor all live.
The “day care shortage,” it turns out, is a rich-person problem, which makes it an awkward fit for a taxpayer-funded public program. But the busy beavers of City Hall will keep building, facts be dammed.
