The proposal is among the first ideas published as part of Project 2029, a collection of recommendations by think tanks, former Democratic staffers and other progressive figures. The effort is directed by Chad Maisel, a former adviser to President Joseph Biden and Senator Cory Booker, who’s now a senior fellow at left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress.

Under the plan, the federal government would offer families two choices for each young child under 5: a free public daycare slot, or a stipend of $1,000 per month, meant to offset the costs or lost income associated with parent- or relative-provided care.

States would work to develop networks of approved daycare providers, which could include neighborhood centers, houses of worship, home-based providers and schools. While children from families at all income levels would be able to enroll in these free seats, only those earning less than $400,000 per year would be able to claim the stipend, the plan says.

Project 2029 — a nod to Project 2025, the influential policy manual from the conservative Heritage Foundation — seeks to influence Democrats’ platforms. The inclusion of a child-care plan reflects the widening appeal of free, universal options for parents seeking care for young children.

“There’s no getting out of where we are on child care without serious federal investment in the expansion of child-care capacity,” said Tara McGuinness, a co-author of the plan and founder of a research lab at the New America Foundation. “High quality child care cannot and should not be done on the cheap.”

The national average price of child care rose to $13,184 per child in 2025, a 23% increase from four years earlier, according to the non-profit Child Care Aware of America.

The Project 2029 proposal bridges a gap between progressive and conservative ideas about how to make raising children more affordable: liberals tend to embrace government-sponsored daycare options, while conservative solutions have focused on child-care tax credits or other financial measures.

The price tag for Project 2029’s plan would be enormous. The report’s co-authors project it would be roughly equivalent to the $200 billion in income, productivity and tax revenue they estimate is lost each year due to childcare challenges.

The inclusion of universal child care in Project 2029 signals that Democrats see it as a winning issue. Free, universal child care was also a centerpiece of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign.

Early childcare proposals have been popular nationwide. Sixty-four percent of respondents in an Associated Press/NORC study last year said they want the federal government to provide free or low-cost daycare for children too young to attend public school, including 76% of Democrats and 51% of Republicans.

Last year, New Mexico became the first state in the nation to implement a child-care plan for all, funded with the investment earnings from a state sovereign wealth fund, though access isn’t yet universal. The District of Columbia’s universal pre-K programs enjoy widespread adoption, with 82% of all 3-year-olds and 94% of all 4-year-olds enrolled in 2024. Republican-controlled states including Louisiana and Tennessee have also made recent efforts to expand some early education programming.