Strong supported child‑care systems enable parents to work and drive economic growth, but when it costs as much to send a child to preschool as it does for in-state tuition at a state college, many New Jersey families find they are being “priced out of parenthood.”
That was the message delivered by childcare and business experts during a recent episode of “Think Tank with Steve Adubato” featuring guests Michele Siekerka, NJBIA President & CEO; Meghan Tavormina, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at the New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children; and Molly Day, Chief Operating Officer of Moms First, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable childcare.
Securing childcare that is safe and affordable is too often viewed as a personal challenge when it is in fact an economic priority for the entire state, the three panelists agreed.
“The business of childcare is everyone's business,” Siekerka said. “Let's start with a sobering statistic: $3.6 billion of lost earnings to productivity and revenue in New Jersey alone because of the fact that we don't have enough affordable and accessible childcare – a place to safely place our children so our workers can come to work each and every day and be productive.”
An estimated 500,000 women have dropped out of the workforce entirely because they cannot afford childcare, Day said.
“We hear from moms every day that they are priced out of childcare,” Day said.
Day noted that during the pandemic the federal government provided funding to the states to keep their childcare systems afloat, but that money has since stopped.
“We have seen a plateau in the number of childcare centers reopening ... and so many closed during the pandemic. We've also seen at the same time, childcare continues to outpace inflation and costs going up to now more than $19,000 per child,” Day said.
Tavormina said the New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children is working closely with Start Strong New Jersey, to “make sure that childcare is robust and invested in at the level that it needs to be successful to lift up all the other industries in New Jersey.”
“We have an opportunity in the first five years of a child's life to really mold the way that they are going to grow and learn ... and when we miss those first five years, we pay for it for the rest of their educational life,” Tavormina said.
Ignoring the childcare affordabiity challenges facing New Jersey parents will have lasting repercussions for children, families, employers and the economy, she said.
“Childcare is a very much an economic conversation,” she said. “If we really continue on this path ... it's going to reshape the way that businesses can operate and their productivity,” Tavormina said.
To watch the entire 30-minute episode, go here.
