- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

PNC, Grow Up Great.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

RWJBarnabas Health.

NJM Insurance Group.

Serving New Jersey'’s drivers, homeowners and business owners for more than 100 years.

PSE&G, committed to providing safe, reliable energy now and in the future.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

NJIT makes industry ready professionals in all STEM fields.

And by Choose New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Family A resource for New Jersey parents.

And by Meadowlands Chamber.

Building connections, driving business growth.

[MOTIVATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi, I'm Steve Adubato.

Welcome to a very special Town Hall Meeting with some extraordinary guests who understand the issue of child care better than most.

This is part of a series we've been doing called Reimagine Child Care.

This streaming, if you will, Town Hall looks at the child care crisis not just in New Jersey, but across the country.

You may ask, what do you mean a child care crisis?

A crisis in employees, there's a shortage of staff.

Affordability, there are people who are not able to work because they can't get child care for their children.

It is not enough of a priority.

I'm not here to editorialize, but it's not enough of a priority for our public officials with all the other priorities they have.

And so we're gonna be looking at the child care crisis from a variety of perspectives.

And to do that... And by the way, COVID has made what has already been a crisis even worse.

So in that spirit, let me introduce enough for me, but our distinguished panel.

First, our long time friend joining us, Cecilia Zalkind, President and CEO Advocates for Children of New Jersey.

Cil, good to see you.

- Thank you for having me.

- All the way from Harvard, Dr. Junlei Li is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education.

The Chair of the Human Development and Education Program at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

And also state Assemblywoman, Yvonne Lopez representing the 19th Legislative District, very involved, very committed to child care and child care advocacy.

Assemblywoman, thank you so much for joining us.

And finally back again with us is Winifred Smith-Jenkins, Senior Director of Zadie's Nurturing Den, which is a highly respected child care organization not just in New Jersey, but across the country.

And by the way, throughout this program where we're putting our Reimagine Child Care website up, people can go up and find more information.

Cil, let me start with you and let's jump right into this.

What exactly is the child care crisis A and B, why should everyone watching right now care deeply?

- Well, the child care crisis actually is not new.

I think the issues confronting child care existed long before the pandemic, but the pandemic has made them worse and also much, much more visible.

Issues around how parents can find affordable high quality care, how programs can support themselves in a time of great stress when their businesses don't have a lot of financial wherewithal to support themselves and the pandemic has certainly exemplified that.

And I think the most critical issue is the child care staff.

This is a staff that has been undervalued and underpaid for years, and I think as things reopened in our state, and there's a greater demand for child care programs, which we'll hearing today are struggling to hire staff back for staff to return or hire new staff.

And it's an important not just to the families who need it, but to our state.

This is essential to our economy.

- Doctor, I want to you jump in here and you're listening to Cil talk about child care professionals, the workers, the frontline folks not being appreciated enough.

A, why do you think that is, Doctor and b, what do we specifically and precisely need to do about that?

And one of the reasons we have the Assemblywoman on is because she's gonna talk about her legislation dealing directly with that.

Dr. Li, please.

- I think the work of caring professionals in general tend to be undervalued.

Historically, women tend to fill that particular role and in the child care sector, we have women of color that fills that role in a significant way.

I think the one thing that we have to start is to recognize that child care providers are professionals.

Regardless of whether they have had access to the kind of credentialing opportunities that they have, we just have to recognize that the work they do is professional and their professional work is part of the infrastructure of a basic society whether we're thinking about education and employment.

So seeing them recognizing them as professionals, would open the doors for us to think about compensating them fairly, provide them the kind of opportunity for the kind of credentials and education and development they need, and to integrate them into the larger world of education and social service and health professionals as opposed to think of them isolated as just child care providers or babysitters and so on.

- And by the way, as I go to our other colleagues in this program, and I'm gonna ask Winifred about the front line situation and what's happening with her workers, but I just wanna remind folks whether you have children of a certain age zero to three, zero to four or not, this is an issue that affects all of us.

I mean, just think about how many men and women have a very difficult time going to an office, not going to an office, but working from home.

And they don't have quality, affordable, accessible child care.

This isn't simply a child care issue.

This is an issue that affects all of us, particularly those who care about our economy and functioning and business, and being able to pay our bills and live our lives.

And in that spirit, Winfred let me ask you, you heard Cecilia and Dr. Li talk about frontline workers.

What are you seeing... By the way, tell everyone what Zaide's Nurturing Den is A and B what's happening with your professionals.

- So Zadie's Nurturing Den is a family-owned and operated child care center to educate children from zero to six years old.

Pre pandemic we employed over 90 people, 96% which were women of color or immigrants and 4% which were white.

We cared for and educated over 350 children.

Currently, those numbers look totally different and that's part of the problem.

It's a problem of staffing shortages.

We have at least eight empty classrooms at one of our facilities, four empty classrooms at another facility.

The undervaluing and under appreciation, because again, across the industry and workforce 90% of which are women, society doesn't seem to place a lot of value on the care and education of young children.

- Do you think people understand, like say argument's sake, they're underappreciated, they're undervalued, but do you think most people understand the impact of those professionals in the child care world being unappreciated, undervalued?

Because it's a devastating impact.

Winifred.

- I don't.

I think that if you just go back to just the basic job description, right?

The women in the classroom and men too, if they're there, but really caring educators, there to develop an effective learning environment that builds a foundation for a language, cognitive skills and social emotional functioning in a developmentally appropriate manner.

So we're literally setting the foundation for a child's entire life.

Children make the most gains between zero and five, then (indistinct) humans, they'll ever make across the board.

So I don't think that people understand the true impact of what the profession brings to society.

- By the way, I'm gonna go to Dr. Li in a little bit to talk about the long-term educational implications of a child not having quality, accessible, affordable child care, but Assemblywoman let me ask you, your personal connection a, to child care and b, able to talk about your legislation.

Why do you care so much?

- As a former CEO of a preschool here in Perth Amboy, I saw child care and how devastating it was before the pandemic, and now after the pandemic where the deeper crisis, right?

I remember days when the parents would drop off the kids and they would be rushing so they would have to get to work and they would not swipe their cards.

So we found that to be a pattern and what we did was we assigned one of my staffers to come to the front lobby to help the parents swiping the cards.

And this is all subsidy driven on child care by the way.

My preschool we had 75 students ages three to five, we have probably about 10 teachers and it was difficult.

We had to on the board of education, provided the funding 1.1 million but we had to put an additional $250,000 to sustain the school.

So for me, child care has always been really close to my heart.

I would tell you that last year when the pandemic started, the Legislature was a 100% focused on COVID related relief.

Everything from rental assistance, to food insecurity, to utilities.

So yeah, a telemedicine-- - I'm sorry for interrupting Assemblywoman, where did child care fit into this discussion in the State Legislature?

- For me, it's always been kind of a-- - Not just for you.

For your disproportionally male colleagues, where do you think it fit?

- Well, I tell you that once the advocates came together, they started to scream and yell and protest and advocate.

We all came together as a caucus and as a body.

Most of us in the caucus have children.

Or we have grand babies.

So we all understood the need for child care.

And especially at the beginning of the pandemic when we saw the first responders and having the child care centers losing the children, we understood that we have to support the first responders.

That's what we started off with.

And we did a really nice job.

I think we did a really wonderful job.

We invest tons of money into child care.

- One of the things we did in preparation for this Reimagine Child Care Town Hall meeting is we went on Facebook and Twitter and a whole range of social media platforms, Cecilia you and your organization put out the fact that we were doing this Town Hall and we asked four questions.

Some of them are on video.

A whole range of them are social media questions that we have, and we summarize them with, if you will, but I'm gonna go to a video question.

I believe team, this is from Megan, correct?

This is from Meghan who she can speak for herself, but she speaks for a lot of other people and asking this question, let's go to Meghan.

- Are any of the other issues worth the investment if we do not fix the compensation and staffing process that is affecting early education today?

- Wow.

Okay.

So Cil, let me go to you.

Meghan's question is very clear.

If we don't deal with the compensation issue, what is the value of the other investments in child care if you do not have the professionals to be on the front lines, because what if it's closing classrooms because she doesn't have enough staff largely around compensation.

Go ahead, Cil.

- So I think as we've learned more and more about the crisis and the impact on child care, it's very apparent that the key to providing a child care system for families and for our state is the staff.

We have to engage staff.

We have to prepare staff effectively.

I think Winifred's description of what that staff person does, they're critical to the life of a very young child and we have to compensate them.

I think to me that's the key.

New Jersey has done a lot with federal money, the Federal Cares Act money to address some of the crisis in child care programs, parents, but the staffing issue is still one that needs to be resolved.

- Well, let's stay on this.

By the way, the American Rescue Plan, New Jersey received $700 million for child care.

We're gonna talk about where that money has gone and where it hasn't gone and what needs to be done.

But Winifred let me follow up with you based on what Cil said.

So you talked about the closing of the classrooms.

What does that mean?

What does it mean when you close the classrooms in terms of how many children and families are affected?

- So the fact that we are competing with Costco and Amazon for staff, because they can pay higher wages, they can provide better benefits, when we can't open a classroom, you're talking about anywhere from 12 to maybe 20 students who could potentially be affected.

And that's 12 to 20 families who can't get services at that location, but this is happening across the State of New Jersey.

So it's a big issue.

- So what about if someone says, "Wait a minute, why don't you just raise tuition?

If you raise tuition, you'll have more..." Cil is laughing and the Assemblywoman is shaking her head.

You just raise tuition, you have more revenue, more money to pay staff, keep the classes open, more kids get help.

Winifred, you say?

- So child care is one of those things that you can only charge what the market can bear.

It's not funded as a public good like we think about our K through 12 schools.

So we could raise tuition, but that, literally a whole sector of families from low to moderate income to the working middle-class, they wouldn't be able to afford it.

It would literally be just for the wealthy.

- So let's be clear.

Though people of color, people disproportionately who are struggling financially are disproportionately affected by this crisis while everyone's affected, some are affected more than others.

Is that fair?

- That's fair.

And the other thing I would like to point out is the women who generally are working in centers can't even afford to send their children to the centers that they're working in or others without some level of subsidy help.

- Dr. Li, let me ask you something.

We talked about the long-term implications of a child not having affordable, accessible, quality child care.

What does it do?

And we're blessed that all of our children have had that.

And I see our daughter, Olivia as we're taping this program, it's not about our kids, but just ironically taking her to her first day of middle school as we're doing this and realizing that the blessing, the gift that had to have the experience she had as a 2, 3, 4 five-year-old has a lot to do with her reading now.

Not our daughter, any one's son or daughter.

What are the longer-term educational implications of a child not getting this kind of quality child care at this stage of his or her development?

- I think we can answer that question by starting to understand kind of what does high-quality child care do for children, both in the present as well as into the future.

So when you think about kind of when there are major disasters and unusual events happen, like the pandemic, like the storm system and so on, one of the things that strong qualified child care professionals do is they offer this protective buffer, which is the relationship that they have with children to help children deal with articulate and play with the kind of stressors that they have in the here and now.

So a lot of times we focus so much on the future we forget children live each day in the here and now, and that every positive relationship they have with their home families, with their caregivers outside the families become this buffer that helps them to grow strong and positive in the moment.

But then in addition to that, leaving the child care in preschool setting, children learn the kind of very basic but essential skills that allow them to adapt to school, to adult life afterwards from something as simple as collaborating, listening, sharing, or putting small words to big feelings and to be able to express all those things.

All these are the fundamentals of what human beings need in order to cope with the now and in order to prepare for the future.

And in addition to that, Steve, it's not just the impact on the child, it's the impact on the family in the here and now.

For families who are working, for families who are taking care of other children and elders at home to have a safe place that they know they can entrust their children to, that their children can learn and grow while they attend to other urgent matters of what it means to be a family.

All of these things I think come together as the importance of child care to children and to families.

- Well said.

By the way, if you go on the website and not only SteveAdubato.org, but also we'll follow up with a website on Reimagine Child Care, you can see all the previous segments and programs we've done in this series around public awareness as it relates to the child care crisis.

Assemblywoman, I wanna go to you.

You have specific legislation down in the State House that does what A and B, where is that legislation as it relates to the child care crisis?

- I'm currently the prime sponsor to the bills, which thank you to Cil and to Cynthia from ACNJ for helping me navigate through that process.

And I am the second prime on Assemblywoman's Mosquera bill.

So I'm going to summarize those bills for you if you like.

- Please, as concisely as possible.

- Yeah, okay.

Okay.

So the first one is Attendance versus Enrollment.

- Attendance versus Enrollment.

- Attendance, right versus Enrollment.

- Having to do with how the funding comes in, correct?

- Subsidies.

I'm speaking-- - Go ahead, please.

- Okay.

So the most consequential issue facing the child care industry is that right now with subsidies the child care centers are being paid based on attendance and not enrollment.

And from a policy perspective, public schools are paid on enrollment and why shouldn't child care centers be paid on enrollment.

And what I'm gonna do is just sort of quickly just summarize this for you 'cause we introduced the bill, it did pass the House and it's on the governor's desk now.

- Right now there's a bill that has passed, both houses?

- Both houses-- - The Senate and the Lower House?

Sitting on the governor's desk that would change the state subsidy system and, Cil if I have this wrong, Assemblywoman if I have this wrong, correct me.

That goes from enrollment.

- From attendance to enrollment-- - Attendance to enrollment?

- For two years.

- Why is that so critical?

- It's very critical because there's so many... As a former administrator, I would say some of the children would not attend school that we're like operating on thin margins right now too also.

So when the children don't attend school, we shouldn't be penalized for that.

We should be paid by subsidy with enrollment so that-- - Which is the way the public schools are?

- Yes.

- Wait a minute.

Child care organizations are different in the way they get state funding?

- Subsidies.

Correct.

- What's the logic behind that?

- So I think this happened during the Christie Administration.

I think that he was...

I guess, just implying that there was fraudulent activities taking place with the enrollment piece.

- So he, governor was saying in that administration as I interpret it, that you only get paid if the kids are there and there could be fraud going on or whatever, and you're trying to change that?

By the way, let's deal with that.

How do we protect against "fraud" or abuse and as opposed to legitimate reasons why kids are not there?

- So the state needs to put a process in place to evaluate the attendance of our students and the enrollment of the students.

And so this bill that we have right now with Mosquera, would require that subsidy should pay based on enrollments, you would have kind of a report, a process in place twice a year to kind of check in with the child care centers.

And my hope is that if it does get approved that we find the funding so that this enrollment process stays in place longterm.

- Okay, Cil let me do this 'cause I know that someone has a second piece of legislation.

We'll talk about that in the second half of this Reimagine Child Care Town Meeting.

Cil, concisely and clearly help folks understand 'cause when we get into the weeds and that's not a criticism Assemblywoman, because sometimes the details matter, and that's where the issue is concisely and clearly, Cil in this last minute we have on the segment, why does this matter so much?

- It matters because this provides stability to the programs that serve our lowest income families who have the least access to child care.

It's not just schools that are funded on the basis of enrollment.

If you look at private pay child care, the parent pays up front, right?

A parent pays a month ahead usually.

If something happens the child is absent, that it's not the program that pays.

Programs that rely on child care subsidies because they serve a low income community, has no stability.

Their payment comes afterwards based on how many children attended.

And you know what?

The state recognized this is critical because we use the Federal Cares Act money to start paying on enrollment.

It helped child care survive during the pandemic and it's what we need now to keep them staying more.

- And let's do this.

We're gonna pick up this conversation in part two of this Reimagine Child Care Town Meeting.

And I wanna thank our distinguished panel.

I promise we'll continue this conversation.

Look again on our website and the Reimagine Childcare website for more information.

I'm Steve Adobato.

Thank you so much for watching.

Make sure you check out part two.

We have to reimagine child care.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

PNC, Grow Up Great.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

RWJBarnabas Health.

NJM Insurance Group.

PSE&G, New Jersey Institute of Technology.

And by Choose New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Family And by Meadowlands Chamber.

(hands clapping) (drums banging)