By Hans Wilder
Somewhere between Albany’s spreadsheets and Governor Kathy Hochul’s press releases, the North Country’s home-based daycare providers got quietly shoved under the bus.
Yes, New York needs childcare. Nobody disputes that. In Watertown, Fort Drum families, hospital workers, teachers, and small business owners all depend on it. But what the state is doing right now isn’t supporting childcare — it’s re-engineering the industry to favor big, corporate-style daycare chains while starving the people who actually provide most of the care.
And now it’s getting absurd.
The state has been pulling back funding, cutting reimbursements, and tightening eligibility rules on existing providers — especially home daycares — and then turning around and announcing big flashy grants so large operations can expand into new counties.
So Albany takes money away from the people already doing the work…
…then gives thousands to someone else to come do the same work in a different zip code.
That’s not a shortage.
That’s sabotage.
Home Daycares Are the Backbone of Northern New York
In Northern New York, home-based daycares aren’t a niche. They are the system.
These are licensed, inspected, trained providers — usually women — running professional childcare operations out of their homes. They’re the ones who take kids at 6 a.m. for Fort Drum parents. They’re the ones who keep infants when big centers won’t. They’re the ones who know the families, the schedules, the special needs, the food allergies, and the realities of this region.
And families prefer them.
They don’t want their toddler in a warehouse-sized corporate childcare franchise with 30 other kids and rotating staff. They want a stable, small, familiar place where their child is known.
That is what home daycares provide.
But Albany is treating them like they don’t exist.
Hochul Can’t Cry “Shortage” While Cutting the System That Works
The governor and her agencies love to say there’s a childcare shortage. But here’s the part they never say out loud:
They created it.
When the state reduced reimbursements, delayed payments, changed eligibility, and made compliance more expensive, many home daycares were forced to shrink or close. Some couldn’t afford the new requirements. Others couldn’t survive months of delayed subsidy payments. Some simply gave up.
Then Albany points to the empty slots and says, “See? Shortage.”
That’s like slashing farmers’ water supply and then complaining there isn’t enough food.
$500,000 Would Save Dozens of Providers — Not Just One Corporation
Here’s the part that makes this especially infuriating.
The state is handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars to single organizations so they can expand into new counties.
But that same $500,000 could:
- Stabilize 20–30 home daycares
- Reopen closed programs
- Add infant slots
- Pay for safety upgrades
- Keep experienced providers in business
Instead of propping up one corporate operator, Albany could strengthen the entire local childcare ecosystem.
That would actually solve the shortage.
This Isn’t About Kids — It’s About Control
What’s happening looks less like childcare policy and more like industry consolidation.
Big providers get grants.
Small providers get red tape.
Local care gets squeezed.
Corporate care gets subsidized.
Families lose choice.
Workers lose flexibility.
Communities lose local businesses.
And Albany gets to announce ribbon cuttings.
Support the People Already Doing the Work
Watertown and Northern New York do not need another state-subsidized childcare empire parachuting in from another county.
We need the providers who are already here to survive.
We need funding restored.
We need fair reimbursements.
We need respect for home daycares as the professional backbone they are.
Governor Hochul can’t break the system and then blame it for being broken.
If Albany really wants more childcare, it should start by supporting the people who never stopped providing it.
Because the kids were never the problem.
The policy was.
