New Jersey Child Care Advocate Says Needs Base Is Missing

By Bob Pepalis | The Center Square contributor, The Center Square New Jersey

2 hrs ago

(The Center Square) – A nonprofit New Jersey childcare industry advocacy group voiced concerns about the expansion of universal pre-K because taxpayer’s money is used to support families who can afford private childcare.

"Early in October, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy highlighted preschool funding in the fiscal year 2023 budget and released the first phase of the New Jersey Strategic Plan for Preschool Expansion," according to his office. In that budget, 27 school districts were to receive a portion of more than $26 million to establish or expand high-quality preschool programs for children.

“As the expansion steadily continues in public schools, many of which are not designed to provide care for children ages 3-4, it will be fiscally impossible for the state to fund the full roll-out of the program,” Early Childhood Education Advocates Board President Gigi Schweikert told The Center Square. “Rather, the ECEA strongly advocates for a mixed-delivery system of childcare, in which the state provides support to families who cannot afford childcare and uses the private childcare system already in place to help working families.”

Environmental concerns must be considered in what the governor’s report discusses as “minimal facility standards” for school-based preschool, according to the ECEA. For children under age 6, brain development is contingent on classroom environments that she said are consistent with current New Jersey Department of Children and Families standards.

The ECEA's position is that building more public schools cannot be the answer. The community-based center cannot compete with these free services provided by the state, which throws billions at new school construction.

“New Jerseyans learned through the pandemic about the critical role of childcare, as the state struggled to provide essential services and many parents needed to be at work,” she said. “For New Jersey to succeed, people need reliable, affordable professional childcare. It is the backbone of the state’s economy. Moreover, childcare needs to focus on supporting the whole child, not just education.”

"Universal pre-K cannot match this precise level of care and training," according to the ECEA.
The ECEA says New Jersey probably ranks in the top five nationally for the quality of education; but for environmental and air quality, as well as the physical safety of preschool held in a public school, it falls into the bottom five. The problem, the organization says, is with universal pre-K is that it doesn’t take into consideration all aspects of a quality preschool program.

“The taxpayers of New Jersey," Schweikert said, "would be better served if financial support follows preschoolers most in need, using all childcare locations that best meet the needs of the entire child."

The focus of the work of The Center Square New Jersey is state and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility.