It’s not necessarily a political hot button or a top priority for most political campaigns.
But affordability of childcare and early care, and access to it, is a major issue for both the workforce and businesses in New Jersey – with seemingly no easy solutions.
At NJBIA’s Public Policy Forum this week, five gubernatorial candidates with a wide range of political perspectives and backgrounds gave differing takes on how to improve New Jersey’s childcare and early care challenges.
And NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Althea D. Ford said these varied discussions need to continue to form solutions.
“As we always say, childcare is the industry that supports all industries,” Ford said. “This industry still struggles to attract and retain adequate staff. New Jersey is not unique in this problem, but because of our lack of affordability, it is amplified here.
“And it greatly impacts both workers, the businesses that employ them and the childcare facilities that provide the services.”
In NJBIA’s 66th Annual Business Outlook Survey, released this week, only 9% of responding businesses said they provide childcare benefits to current employees.
When asked if they would be more apt to offer childcare benefits if tax incentives were provided, 22% said yes, 35% said no and 43% said they weren’t sure.
At the Public Policy Forum, New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children Past President Meghan Tavormina asked the gubernatorial candidates how they’ll address the compensation crisis of early care when the average salary for K-12 teachers is currently around $80,000 per year, compared to the average $32,000 salary for early educators.
Here were some responses:
Senator Steve Sweeney (D):
“No one can disagree about childcare. It’s just not affordable.
“Priorities of funding are critically important. I do think pPre-K helps because we’re getting kids educated sooner. And, look, crazy idea –– I would love to have children from birth going to school.
My daughter did early education. She was a preemie, and my baby learned. We taught (the educator) how to teach her everything because she had Down syndrome and she had to be how to how to sit up, how to crawl. She learned everything.
“And what you find out is 85% of a human’s brain develops from birth to 5 years old. So, getting kids in sooner makes a huge difference in their lives. The earlier we can get children in, the better it will be. But we’ve got to find ways to fund it.”
NJEA President and former Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller (D):
“I talk to Montclair residents who are still paying $20,000 for childcare and then $10,000 (a year) for early care, after care. It’s an expensive piece. And that doesn’t even address some of the compensation for those who are doing the work as well.
“I agree with the Senate president (Sweeney) that we’ve got to expand that for a number of reasons.
“Number 1, it’s cost effective. When we invest in our students at an early age, as they move through that system, it is way less expensive than when –– me as a high school teacher –– we don’t have people in the classroom trying to offer that assistance, trying to help people catch up, because they got what they needed earlier. That’s just a smart investment over time.”
NJ101.5 Radio Host Bill Spadea (R):
“Taxpayers should absolutely not be on the hook for universal daycare. All due respect to the senator (Sweeney), I don’t think I like the idea at all of starting education at birth. Not just because I’ve seen what they’re teaching in some of these classrooms, but because we ought to be empowering mom and dad.
“There are plenty of parents out there that would say I’d rather make the choice to stay home if there was a sufficient tax credit to be a work-at-home mom or dad. Because how many of our moms and dads are out there paying for daycare and saying and it’s most of what their second job, sometimes their third job takes in just to meet those bills.
“The liberal answer to that is, well, just have the government pay for it. Well, there’s no such thing as the government paying for it. You’re paying for it. We ought to be incentivizing work at home parents who want to make that decision to raise their kids.”
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop (D):
“The childcare issue is a fundamental national crisis, and it is really on municipalities and governors to find accountability and responsible ways to solve that.
“First, there’s no question that the compensation is low, and the way to correct that is continually pushing up the minimum wage …. We have a very, very high cost of living here. And that upward pressure is important to the lowest paid employees.
“Secondly, I would tell you as part of the paid leave conversation, that the first year is crucial to a child’s development. And New Jersey can and should do better on paid leave in order to facilitate.
“Third, as you talk about the lowest income people, the labyrinth of incentives with the state is a mess. You need to streamline that to make it easier for people to get the incentives and benefits that are there from the federal and state government.
“Finally, how you deal with childcare centers and how the state incentivizes them to open is totally backwards. You are in an attendance system here on compensation for those early childhood centers. And the reality is that if you move like many other states to an enrollment-based system, you will have more of them opening because there’s more certainty around what kind of compensation they will get. The more seats that open, the more opportunities there are.”
Former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R):
“We know that after housing, the single greatest expense line for any parent or parents is childcare. And so, as governor, I’ll do all I can to make sure the government recognizes that, with the appropriate childcare tax credits.
“I will do all that I can to establish a very, very, effective child tax credit program here in New Jersey … You’ll never hear an argument from me or anyone as to the value of Pre-kK or early childhood education. But that doesn’t mean we should just necessarily add it to every one of our 600 school districts.
“What a lot of people don’t know is the business space that’s owned by more females than any other in the state are childcare centers. And we’re putting them right out of business when we create a Pre-kK within the public school system. I would much prefer us to use a voucher system depending on what your gross income is as a parent or parents that you would get a voucher that you could then take to a privately –owned childcare center.
“I think that’s another approach that we should consider rather than just the blanket approach of establishing a Pre-kK in every single school district all around the state.”
ANALYZING INVESTMENTS
Last month, Ford recommended to an Assembly committee that the state explore existing childcare investments to determine their effectiveness for an industry that continues to struggle in New Jersey.
In written testimony, Ford said that an analysis in existing investments recently announced by Gov. Phil Murphy could inform future investments to help improve what she calls an “unsustainable model.”
“Governor Murphy noted that the Administration has invested more than $1 billion in the childcare sector to date,” Ford said. “Yet, the cost of childcare is still high, and childcare wages are still low.
“An analysis should be conducted on the specific beneficiaries of these investments and their efficacy in addressing industry concerns and pain points. Such an analysis would help to inform decisions about future investments and ensure that state funds were effectively deployed to support this critical industry.”
