[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hey, everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program talking about childcare with someone who knows the topic very well.

Sharon Levine is campaign director of a campaign called Start Strong NJ.

The website will be up right now.

Sharon, great to have you with us.

- Hi, Steve, thanks so much for having me on today to talk about childcare issues in New Jersey.

- And as folks know, we have been involved in a public awareness public education initiative for several years about the importance of affordable, accessible quality childcare, and Start Strong NJ is the initiative leading the way.

Tell everyone what the initiative is while the website is up so they log on and find out more.

- Yes, so these days it is just getting harder and harder to balance family and work.

You know, everything costs more than it used to, and there is just seemingly never enough time.

And for many families with young children, the largest expense that they face is childcare, sometimes costing more than their mortgage or their rent.

And that's really where Start Strong New Jersey comes in.

We are a statewide campaign uniting parents, early childhood educators and business.

And we're united by three core principles.

The first is that childcare must be both affordable and accessible for every family that needs it.

The second is that we really need to compensate our early childhood educators as the professionals that they are, right?

And finally, you know, we need the state of New Jersey to both recognize and fund childcare as essential economic infrastructure, because it enables people to work.

- So let's go back to, there are two parts of that that I wanna follow up on.

We'll talk about state funding and state support in a second because if you look at our interview with Governor Mikie Sherrill, look at our website right now, steveadubato.org, the big chunk of that conversation with the governor, was a full half-hour program on "State of Affairs," was about childcare.

And the governor was engaged in childcare issues as a member of Congress.

And now as governor, it's a very different position, but the challenge is still the same.

But one of the things you talked about, Sharon, was paying childcare professionals more.

Here's the thing that I'm trying to make sense of.

Clearly childcare professionals, educators, not paid enough.

If they get paid more, does that, in turn, wind up raising tuition and fees at childcare centers?

- So I think that is one of the challenges, right?

We need to look at the system as a whole.

It's very interconnected.

And while we absolutely wanna make childcare more affordable for families, you know, we need to keep that in mind about early childhood educators and raising wages and how that affects tuition.

I think one of the things we really need to do in New Jersey is dispel this concept that this is babysitting.

It is most definitely not babysitting.

Our early childhood educators are working with New Jersey children at a time in their lives where their brains are growing the fastest, they are learning so much, and they are trained and they are really setting the foundation for young children to go into both public school and then the rest of their lives.

I can tell you from my personal experience, my son went to childcare, and when we went to our first kindergarten parent-teacher conference with the teacher, she wanted to know where my son had been prior to public school, because he came in with such a leg up, with such a great foundation that was provided to him by the childcare center.

So we need to really elevate our mindset around this profession and really fund and pay our early childhood educators their true value.

- You know, Sharon, you mentioned your son and the opportunity your son had to be in a quality childcare center.

I've often said, as we do this programming around childcare, that we've been blessed and fortunate to be able to do that for kids.

And I often think, okay, so those, our kids are fortunate.

They have certain advantages.

They get this childcare, quality childcare, they're ready.

Talk to our audience about the challenges that children who do not have that opportunity to be in such a childcare center have when they get to kindergarten.

- Yes, so in childcare centers, you know, it isn't just changing diapers and feeding and those things.

Of course, it's that and keeping children safe, but it's so much more than that.

There's a curriculum, right?

They are learning emotional regulation, how to share, how to take turns, how to be independent.

Those are all such critical skills that you not only use in school, but you need for the rest of your life, right?

And our early childhood educators are really spending so much time each day with our children and having such a long-term impact on their future potential.

And children who don't go to childcare centers, you know, they may not be exposed to that prior to entering public school.

- Let's shift gears.

Let folks know what happens when a mom or a dad, disproportionately a mom, is not able to work because childcare is not accessible and affordable.

- When childcare is not affordable, a parent has to sometimes make that really tough decision of either reducing their work hours or dropping out of the workforce entirely, right?

And that's gonna have long-term impacts on their career advancement, on retirement savings, on, you know, promotions that they may have to turn down.

And so it hurts their financial stability and their ability to provide for their own family and their children.

- But doesn't it also impact the state and the rest of us?

Because if that mom or dad chooses not to work, very hard decision, right, that income tax revenue is not coming into the state.

- That is a great point, Steve.

So childcare is as essential to the economy as roads and bridges and public transportation.

Childcare is essential economic infrastructure and it's a public good.

And it enables people to work and businesses to thrive.

When parents make that difficult choice of reducing their work hours or dropping out of the workforce entirely, businesses then face staffing shortages.

They have reduced productivity.

They have slowed growth.

And the state of New Jersey loses $5 billion, just think about that, $5 billion annually in lost wages, reduced productivity and lost tax revenue that, Steve, you and I both know the state needs to fund important public services.

- Absolutely, before I let you go, Sharon, what is the Jenga, J-E-N-G-A, Advisory Council?

- So we have a Jenga Council.

We created it.

It's a group of childcare providers to make sure that the policy recommendations that Start Strong New Jersey is advocating for is really rooted in the lived experience of the childcare operators, right?

We wanna make sure that, as we move forward with our advocacy, that we are having that voice of childcare providers telling us about what they're experiencing, the challenges they're facing, and how we can advocate on behalf of them and the families who rely on them.

- Sharon, let me also make it clear that your support is not taxpayer dollars, correct?

- No, it is not.

- It's all private.

And two of the foundations, the Burke Foundation and the Turrell Fund, support Start Strong NJ, as well as other philanthropic organizations.

And they, the Burke Foundation and Turrell, support our programming, as well.

Sharon, I cannot thank you enough for joining us.

We'll have multiple conversations moving forward.

And we'll also check out our interviews with State Senator Teresa Ruiz, who is one of the leaders in the state legislature on childcare issues.

SteveAdubato.org, check out that and a whole range of other interviews connected to childcare.

Sharon, thanks so much.

We wish you all the best.

- Thank you, Steve.

Appreciate the chance to be on this morning.

- We appreciate you.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn More at RWJBH.org.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The Burke Foundation South Jersey Industries.

NJ Best, New Jersey’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

Lincoln Tech.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program.

NJ Transit.

And by these public spirited organizations, individuals and associations committed to informing New Jersey citizens about the important issues facing the Garden State.

Promotional support provided by BestofNJ.com.

And by Insider NJ.

- At the Turrell Fund, we know that all New Jersey families deserve access to affordable, high quality childcare.

Early childhood education supports healthy brain development and provides essential support to power the economy, enabling parents to work, businesses to operate, and communities to thrive.

The Turrell Fund is proud to be part of Start Strong NJ, a statewide initiative to put affordable, high quality childcare within reach of all New Jersey families.

Learn more at TurrellFund.org and StartStrongNJ.org.