Under the state budget that took effect July 1, life will be a bit more affordable for some of the New Jersey families that struggle to pay for the childcare that enables parents to work and build a secure economic future.
The state Child Tax Credit increased by 25%. With an average yearly benefit of about $950, the credit is available to families making up to $80,000 a year for each child under 6. The state also launched a mobile-friendly application at SimpleFile.NJ.gov to streamline the process of applying for the credit. The hope is that thousands more eligible families than the over 200,000 who now get the credit will file for it. Increasing the Child Tax Credit was among recommendations in Start Strong NJ’s “Blueprint for Affordable Child Care” released earlier this year.
And the budget restored $18 million in funds that help families pay for childcare. Last summer, the Child Care Assistance Program temporarily stopped taking applications and raised copays for already enrolled families because its funding ran out.
State officials estimate that more than 77,500 children will be able to attend early childhood education programs because of this budget provision. That’s great, but all that’s being accomplished here is bringing the level of assistance back to what it already was — which wasn’t enough.
The reality is that much more is needed to ease the minds and the budgets of New Jersey families.
Future state budgets need to do much more. They should be judged not by whether they provide any help to struggling families, but by how many more families can afford the child care they need.
A year of infant and toddler care in New Jersey averages $20,000. For many families — and that includes those we’d consider middle class — that’s more than they pay in rent or mortgage. That’s not sustainable for them and it’s bad for businesses losing employees and the economy as whole — which means everyone, whether they have young children or not.
The way forward can be found in other recommendations in Start Strong NJ’s Blueprint. They include:
- Raising CCAP income eligibility — New Jersey’s cutoff is among the lowest of any state — so more families qualify for state tuition assistance and also increasing support levels to better reflect the true cost of care.
- Making childcare tuition assistance rates the same whether parents use a community-based center or what’s known as “family care,” where providers serve smaller groups of children in someone’s home.
- Letting family care providers accommodate more children; their more flexible hours make family care providers the only option for parents who work nights or irregular hours.
- Boosting early childhood educators’ pay and benefits; many today are paid so little they need public assistance to support their own families. This would include aligning their pay with that of public-school educators with similar qualifications.
- Convening a blue-ribbon commission on childcare and early learning in general; other states have found this helpful.
- Developing a long-term financing strategy for childcare in New Jersey.
Granted, that last one can be a sticking point for policymakers concerned about the cost. Look at it this way: New Jersey’s combination of high childcare costs and not enough openings already costs the state $5 billion a year in lost wages, reduced business productivity, and lost tax revenue needed for important public services. That figure reflects not only missed workdays, but stalled careers and unrealized economic mobility. Businesses alone lose over $2 billion, with more than half the cost borne by essential, high-interaction, and shift-based workers who keep New Jersey’s core industries running. New Jersey’s economy can’t prosper with a workforce destabilized by problems affording or finding childcare.
Why, some folks ask, should the state call on everyone — including people without children or whose offspring have outgrown the need for childcare — to support care for some people’s children?
For the same reason we as a society call on everyone to contribute to the cost of schools, parks, roads, and public safety. They all are economic infrastructure essential to the public good. And it’s time we see that childcare is, too.
Childcare isn’t a luxury, a frill or babysitting. Parents across the income spectrum struggle to pay for it — urban, suburban and rural; regardless of race, ethnicity, education or any other demographic category. It’s just not a problem each family can solve on its own. If that ever was true, it’s not true in the 21st century, when 62% of families with children under 6 have both parents working.
This isn’t about anyone’s self-interest. It’s in the public interest for the whole state of New Jersey.
Sharon Levine is the campaign director for Start Strong NJ.
