“The question for New Jersey’s next governor isn’t ‘Can we afford to invest in child care?’ The question is ‘Can we afford not to?’ “
— Winifred Smith-Jenkins, EdD, co-chair of Start Strong NJ; Director of Early Learning Policy and Advocacy, Advocates for Children of New Jersey; Senior Director, Zadie’s of the Oranges
A stronger New Jersey starts with child care.
Start Strong NJ is a statewide campaign to make affordable child care available to every family in New Jersey that needs it. The effort brings together advocates, researchers, educators, and others who want New Jersey to be a more prosperous, affordable state by modernizing how we provide and pay for child care.
The time from pregnancy through age 2 — the first 1,000 days — is the most crucial time to build a foundation for lifelong health and well-being. Promoting early childhood development is one of the highest-return investments New Jersey can make.
Why Child Care?
Parents — especially mothers — often face the impossible choice between working and struggling to afford child care or leaving the workforce altogether. Employers can’t recruit and retain talent, and our economy can’t grow.
When more parents can work, New Jersey could see an economic gain of $3.6 billion or more each year.
Without affordable high-quality child care, young children miss out on fundamental brain-building opportunities. Early child care reduces costs in special education, healthcare and social services over a lifetime.
50%
Share of income spent on care for two children by parents who both work full-time, minimum wage jobs
67,000
Jobs created by New Jersey’s child care sector
48%
Percent of women who say a lack of child care is keeping them out of the workforce
$3.6 billion
Amount New Jersey stands to gain each year if more parents can work
Child care is too big a challenge for individual families to solve on their own.
It’s a statewide economic imperative that needs to be recognized as essential infrastructure, just like roads, schools, broadband, and other investments society makes so families, communities and the state can thrive.
The Start Strong NJ agenda for child care
New Jersey’s next governor and state leadership need to:
Make affordable child care available to every New Jersey family
Strengthen the underpaid, overstressed child care workforce
Commit to long-term investment that supports child care as the essential infrastructure it is
It’s time for child care to be at the top of New Jersey’s policy agenda.
The Burke Foundation partners with the Turrell Fund, Maher Charitable Foundation, The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation, Schumann Fund for New Jersey, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and others to fund and support Start Strong NJ.
“Our work in New Jersey focuses on mobilizing the business community —
forging partnerships and organizing events with corporations like Prudential
Financial, Audible, L’Oréal, and PSEG. Together, we’re helping employers see
what we’ve long known: Child care isn’t just a perk for employees, it’s an
economic engine.”— Reshma Saujani, CEO and founder of Moms First, Start Strong NJ member
