Growing
pains for child care initiative
Private centers
air funding complaints
Thursday, August 05, 2004 • BY JOHN MOONEY •
Star-Ledger Staff
New Jersey's partnership
with private child care centers to provide free preschool in
its cities continues to grow, but not without some rough
spots showing in the marriage.
State officials yesterday
gave a stellar picture of the program mandated under the
Abbott vs. Burke school equity case, citing rising
enrollments, improved teacher credentials, and tighter
accountability of the centers themselves.
Next year, more than
40,000 3- and 4-year-old children will be enrolled in Abbott
preschools in 30 cities, officials said. More than
two-thirds of those will be in 500 private centers or ones
funded by the federal Head Start program. In all, more than
90 percent of their teachers will be fully
licensed.
"It's an extraordinary
success story," state Education Commissioner William Librera
told the state board of education. "We have provided an
opportunity for children of New Jersey that no other state
has done."
But some of the challenges
and frustrations faced by the centers -- ranging from large
community programs to small nursery schools -- have also
begun to boil over. This winter, ongoing state reviews and
audits of four dozen centers found fiscal and management
problems.
And yesterday, some of the
centers complained that the state bears some blame itself.
At the same time Librera and his staff gave their report in
Trenton, a coalition of Head Start providers and private
centers met in Newark to speak out against the state's
funding system. They said it forced one New Brunswick center
to close and has put others in jeopardy.
The Puerto Rican Action
Board announced it will close its locations in New
Brunswick, serving more than 200 children, due to an
expected $400,000 shortfall in its budget under the state's
funding.
The children will be
served in New Brunswick's own public program, but advocates
said this is indicative of what they see as a larger pattern
of the state and districts trying to wean community
providers out of the Abbott program altogether.
"We don't want the school
to take over the Puerto Rican Action Board," said Daniel San
Pietro, director of the Hispanic Directors Association of
New Jersey and frequent critic of the state's oversight.
"That would be terrible. We want that program."
Leaders of the state's
Head Start programs also said the state's funding leaves
their programs in peril. "If it weren't for the federal
money that has kept Head Start afloat, we'd be going under,
too," said Maxim Thorne, executive director of New Jersey
Head Start Association.
The problems are not
universal, as state officials said they have heard of only
one other closing due to funding issues out of more than 500
sites, and other centers' leaders say the program by and
large is working.
"It is a growth process,
but it is also so good for the kids and the families that I
will do whatever it takes to continue," said Lorraine Cooke,
director of the Egenolf Early Childhood Center in Elizabeth,
which has more than 100 children under the Abbott
program.
"It's amazing what this is
doing for children," she said.
Leading a new statewide
association of providers, Cook said she hears from some
others -- especially smaller centers -- of the difficulty
meeting state guidelines that force them into strict
budgets.
The head of one Newark
center said yesterday that money for a needed security guard
was rejected. Others said the state's administrative
spending caps are severe. On average, the centers receive
about $9,700 per child overall.
"We do need this
partnership for the children, but we haven't truly reached
it yet," said Trish Morris-Yambe, director of the Newark Day
Center. "There is a relationship, but no partnership
yet."
Librera and Ellen Frede,
assistant to the commissioner for early childhood education,
yesterday downplayed the budget problems as largely unique
to specific centers. But they said more would be done to
iron out differences on some specific guidelines, and both
pledged the state had no intention of usurping these
centers' overall role.
"We understand community
providers will always be a critical component of this,"
Librera said. "It is not possible to do this without the
community providers."
Staff writer Jonathan Casiano contributed to this report.
Copyright 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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