Child care is the single largest expense for many New Jersey families, often outpacing rents and car payments and forcing parents to make difficult choices as they try to balance household budgets in an increasingly expensive state.
Now a coalition of advocates for improving child care affordability and access across New Jersey hopes a new legislative session and governor present an opportunity for meaningful reforms. In a new report, they estimate the state’s economy sacrifices at least $5 billion annually in lost earnings, tax revenues and productivity because of child care challenges.
The report and policy recommendations from Start Strong NJ call for the state to make child care more affordable by fully funding and expanding eligibility for an existing assistance program and reducing family copayments. They also look to strengthen paid family and medical leave and expand tax credits to families.
The report prioritizes child care workers as well, seeking improvements to pay and working conditions for early childhood educators through benefit and subsidy programs. It also calls for retaining more professionals through scholarships, apprenticeships and earn-while-you-learn programs.
“The blueprint that we launched today isn't just another report, it's a practical, achievable roadmap for action,” said Winifred Smith-Jenkins, director of early learning policy at Advocates for Children of New Jersey and a cochair of Start Strong NJ. “When we invest in child care, we invest in families, in our workforce, through participation and in the long term prosperity of our state.”
The new report does not endorse specific legislation, but asks the state to assemble a blue-ribbon commission to prioritize child care and make it a key element of long-term economic planning.
Jon Shure, one of the coauthors, said the coalition will be monitoring bills as they are introduced through the new session in Trenton. Advocates will closely watch Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s budget address in early March, when she is expected to announce policies broadly aimed at affordability issues.
“Given the rhetoric about affordability and given just how important this situation is, we're confident that there will be legislation introduced and we look forward to working with legislators to help make it say what needs to be said,” Shure said.
Sherrill’s office declined to preview what may be in her budget proposal, but said affordability would be front and center.
“Gov. Sherrill cares deeply about this issue and as a mom of four kids understands the burden high child care costs have on working families in New Jersey,” spokesperson Maggie Garbarino said.
Federal guidelines recommend families spend at most 7% of their annual income on child care. Roughly half of New Jersey families spend more than that, with tuition costs for one infant in a licensed center in the state averaging about $20,000 a year, according to the report.
The high cost of child care can push lower-income parents to take on more work to pay for care, meaning less time to be around their kids. These costs can also lead parents to withdraw from the workforce entirely to stay home with their kids.
“When families can't access reliable care, parents reduce hours, leave the workforce, and employers lose productivity,” Smith-Jenkins said.
New Jersey’s Child Care Assistance Program offers subsidies for families, but puts a strict income limit on eligibility — cutting off, for example, families of four who make more than $66,000. The program is also underfunded and had to stop accepting new enrollments in August when its money ran out.
The state Department of Human Services, which runs the program, has said it intended to reopen enrollment at the start of this year in a limited capacity.
Smith-Jenkins said fully funding the program would be “a good first step.” About $30 million is needed to achieve that goal, which would allow about 2,400 more families to be served, she added.
Start Strong NJ also emphasizes the need to boost support and compensation for early childhood educators.
The median wage for a full-time early childhood educator in New Jersey was $37,114 in 2023, according to the report. Many child care workers aren’t able to afford child care of their own.
“Affordability does not work without workforce stability, and investment does not matter if it does not sustain the people delivering care,” said Meghan Tavormina, public policy director for the New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children and a Start Strong NJ cochair.
The new push around child care comes as other states focus on the same issue.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani plan to expand free child care to children as young as 2 years old. New Mexico has started offering universal child care, paid for by leveraging the state’s oil and gas revenues. Connecticut used $300 million to start a trust fund to pay for child care programs in coming years.
The report does not put a price tag on the full scope of its recommendations, and it is unclear where the money to pay for them may come from, given the serious structural issues facing New Jersey’s budget.
Shure said he is hopeful that state leaders will find creative solutions.
“When we want something in New Jersey, we find a way to pay for it,” he said. “It may not be easy, it may not be quick, but we do it. And so there's no reason to think we can't do this.”
The legislative session is only a few weeks old, but some lawmakers have already introduced bills addressing the report’s recommendations. That includes bills to fully fund the state child care assistance program through the end of this fiscal year, expand the state’s child tax credits, and create a task force on child care deserts.
A bill to create a waitlist for the child care assistance program, which aims to increase transparency for families seeking help, was passed by the state assembly's aging and human services committee on Thursday.
Assemblywoman Shanique Speight, a Newark Democrat who chairs the committee, sponsored the bill and many others aimed at child care issues.
“Child care in our state is important. Parents need it to work and to feed their families,” Speight said.
Democrats have historic majorities in the statehouse this session and can operate without Republican support if they choose. But at least one Republican — Assemblywoman Aura Dunn of Morris County — has pledged broad support for child care affordability efforts.
“We as a society have to recognize that this is the most important investment, this early start,” Dunn said. “To help stabilize families, help our economy and obviously our future.”
A recent Rutgers-Eagleton poll of likely voters conducted in partnership with Start Strong NJ last year found there is broad public support in New Jersey for making child care more affordable and accessible.
The poll found nearly 68% of New Jersey voters have difficulty finding quality, affordable child care. Sixty-one percent of voters said finding child care is a major barrier for parents who want to work.
Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling, said it's difficult to find issues that reach such a level of consensus across voters.
“We see that these results are pretty much across the board, at least when it comes to knowing someone who has had difficulty with affording child care, or believing that it's more difficult to find child care,” Koning said. “I think there is definitely strong support within New Jersey for making it more affordable.”
