Democratic nominee for governor Mikie Sherrill said child-care challenges in the state are not just a family problem – they are a detriment to the economy.
“Child-care challenges cost the state $3.6 billion annually,” she said. “Access to childcare is an economic issue, plain and simple. Parents shouldn’t have to hand over their entire paycheck to be able to afford safe, high-quality childcare.”
Sherrill made the remarks to business leaders at the recent candidates’ forum sponsored by the N.J. Business & Industry Association.
Sherrill told the overflow crowd that the state needs to train more child-care workers.
“We need more child-care professionals,” she said. “One place we could start is on-the-job training that’s going to help increase the number of slots for vital programs like Head Start.”
Sherrill said doing so would help solve the problem and provide jobs.
“It will help offset expensive certifications, while allowing head start to invest in a pipeline of early educators,” she said. “This will help us eliminate child-care deserts across our state.”
Sherrill said the ideas mix with her overall goal of creating more job-training programs.
“We have to make key investments in our public schooling and workforce systems, in evidence-based programs like high impact tutoring and registered apprenticeships to give all New Jerseyans the opportunity to succeed no matter which zip code you are growing up in,” she said.
“I’m proud to work with many people in this room to bring back federal dollars for job training programs and apprenticeships, and I’ll continue fighting a trend to fund these evidence-based initiatives across the state.”
