We've got to start by talking about paradigms. They are the lens through which you view the world, a specific way of thinking and looking at what is going on. When one views the world through a certain paradigm, they see a specific set of problems and solutions to those problems. We cannot not have a paradigmatic view — that is just how it works. Thomas Kuhn talks about paradigms breaking down when there is a preponderance of evidence that is not explainable under the reigning paradigm.
Sociopolitically, the United States particularly, is operating under a neoliberal paradigm. This is marked by a belief in the private sector to solve social problems, a distrust and disbelief in public institutions, and adherence to market principles. There is a strong individualism under neoliberalism, a belief that with hard work and capital one can succeed. Neoliberalism promises success through capitalism, efficiency, and market balances. As I read about pushes for free college and expanded childcare through free preK programs, I see neoliberal solutions for neoliberal problems.
People need more college to gain higher wages, thus more people need to go to college to obtain those higher wages. Not everyone can afford tuition and some people are not gaining the education that would contribute to the economy, i.e. the market. There is the problem: not everyone is contributing to the market as they should. A free college (or at least community college) allows more people to contribute to the market at a higher rate. This is about getting more people in jobs. This is about buoying an unsustainable economic system. It is not a humanitarian or liberal cause.
The second "solution" I keep seeing is expanding childcare. This one is more obvious. People need childcare so they can work. Some people are not working because they cannot afford traditional childcare or do not have family to chip in. In actuality, the free childcare movement is against even family chipping in because that is another person not in the labor force. In neoliberalism the labor force and market is holy. Everything else is secondary. Get kids watched — take care of that distraction — so people can get back to what really matters: labor.
My point here is that the solutions being proposed are not a salve to this unsustainable system, they are further bolstering the system. People complain about unaffordable college and childcare, so the market responds and makes something that is affordable. It continues to propagate the same system. This is what happens when everything is approached under neoliberalism. There can be another way, say by not requiring college and allowing people to be trained on jobs because all college mostly is at this point is a mill to produce the commodity of education (see Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society). Shouldn't it be more important for parents to spend time with their children rather than shuttling them to daycare so they can spend their time laboring? These are just but some of the cracks in the neoliberal paradigm. They are still explainable through certain free social services, so long as they are in service of getting people a job in the private sector. Eventually these cracks will accumulate and more people will find that this system is unsustainable and it does not lead to a flourishing life.