NJ child care centers brace for funding 'cliff' as Congress scrambles for solution

DOVER — U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill toured classes at the Head Start Community Program of Morris County on Tuesday morning, listening intently as children ate lunch, answered her questions and sang to her in English and Spanish.

The early development fostered in these programs plays a crucial role in a child's educational career, experts say. But anticipated budget cuts combined with the end of federal relief funding this month threaten to severely reduce their availability — a change Sherrill argues would affect New Jersey on many levels for years to come.

The Democratic congresswoman's visit to the Dover center came less than a month before the so-called "child care cliff" on Sept. 30, when federal funds from the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire.

The development will cause New Jersey to lose an estimated 1,000 child care providers, Sherrill said. The expected loss, combined with what she called "massive" cuts proposed by the Republican-controlled House, creates an especially dire situation for parents who were already having difficulty finding affordable programs.

"The resulting flood of need for child care will only raise costs and increase demand for other types of programs like Head Start," Sherrill said. "So as I head back to [Washington,] D.C., next week, I'll be fighting to avert this crisis."

Can Congress avoid the cliff?

Sherrill, of Montclair, who represents New Jersey's 11th Congressional District, championed her proposed bill, the Child Care for Every Community Act. The legislation would follow the model of the Head Start program by establishing a network of federally supported child care options. The bill would ensure that no family pays more than 7% of its income on early childhood education, she said.

"This is something that I do envision will be widely supported by the government, because this is how we bolster our workforce," Sherrill said. "There is not one place I've gone to where they are not finding it difficult to find the workforce that they need, and in many cases, that is because of child care problems."

While politicians on both sides of the aisle say the child care cliff needs to be addressed, Republicans and Democrats have struggled to pass measures to avert it.

Congress also faces the prospect of a government shutdown this fall, as some Republicans push the House to pass deep budget cuts.

If a government shutdown "is a requirement to break bad habits, so be it. And this town has a bad habits problem,” Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., a member of the GOP's House Freedom Caucus, told reporters earlier this summer.

More: Emergency child care funding is about to end. Expect more daycares to hike prices, close.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, told CBS News last week that the two parties might be able to find common ground on reducing regulations that drive up the cost of child care.

"We have some really crazy regulations in this country," Mace said. "Some places say you have to have a four-year college degree. Well, that certainly makes it harder to find child care workers, increases in cost because of it. Other places say, well, if you're certified in one state, it's not reciprocal in another."

Importance of early childhood education

Education professionals who joined Sherrill on Tuesday noted that children who lack early learning opportunities often face a gap in the classroom that remains even at the high school and college levels.

"We are looking to take our students through that journey," said Dover Schools Superintendent James McLaughlin, whose district partners with Head Start. "It begins prior to age 3, it intensifies at age 3 and 4, and the success that comes from this is really just so significant."

How Head Start works

Head Start often begins its relationship with Dover families — some of whom speak little to no English — when a woman is still pregnant, said Susan O'Donnell, the executive director of the group's Morris County office. The agency supports mothers from pregnancy until the child is 18 months old, at which point the child joins the Early Head Start program in the same school.

The children then learn basic social skills for two years before moving on to Head Start. They communicate in English and Spanish in the classroom, as the school's goal is to make them bilingual by the program's end, O'Donnell said.

Head Start's pre-K program in Dover has grown from 90 students five years ago to nearly 400 today, McLaughlin said, meaning almost every eligible child in town is receiving a preschool education. The superintendent called it "a little disheartening" to see the ongoing funding debate on early childhood education, since he remembered discussing its benefits as early as 1980, when he was studying to become an educator.

U.S. child care funding

Sherrill echoed McLaughlin's comments, saying the U.S. was once "at the forefront" of funding education but now lags behind other countries, to the detriment of all.

"It is damaging to children, it's damaging to families and it's damaging to our economy," she said. "So almost no matter which direction you come at this problem from or which solution you are solving for, the answer is to invest more in early childhood education."

Local educators are hopeful that with continued collaboration from schools and government officials, New Jersey students can withstand the impending financial issues.

"It takes a powerful voice and it takes a lot of advocacy at all levels," said Anthony Iacono, president of County College of Morris.

This article includes material from USA Today.

Kyle Morel is a local reporter covering Morris and Sussex counties.

Email: kmorel@njherald.com; Twitter: @KMorelNJH

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: NJ child care centers face federal funding cuts, Sherrill says