Jun 2, 2009 7:54 pm US/Eastern
Budget Cuts To Keep 6,000 NJ Preschoolers At Home
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) ―
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More than 6,000 New Jersey preschoolers who were ready to start going to class in the fall may end up staying home due to budget cuts. (File)
CBS
More than 6,000 New Jersey preschoolers who were ready to start going to class in the fall may end up staying home due to budget cuts. It's not just the kids who are feeling the pain.
Gina Fedouchik was excited about her 3-year-old daughter Leah starting her preschool class in September under an extended pre-K program for low-income areas in New Jersey. That excitement turned to disappointment, though, when she received a letter saying budget cuts have cut the program in the fall.
"It's disappointing because there are a lot of people out there that when we found out about everything being cut it was like oh no, now what are we going to do?" she told CBS 2.
Fedouchik had planned to go back to work, but will now need to stay home for another year.
"Right now I guess we'll just have to tighten the belt a little bit more and try to deal with what comes our way," she said.
Leah would have gone to Cliffside Park Early Learning Center, where 130 3-year olds were registered to start the program, which has been incredibly successful in 31 low-income communities for the last eight years.
Principal Janet Merrill told CBS 2 most of her students face a lot of challenges.
"I have children here who come from very diverse backgrounds. It's difficult for them," she said. "First of all there's a language barrier, and in school they're getting the English language and it's not TV. It's first hand english language."
New Jersey already spends nearly $11,000 for each student in the program, the highest in the nation. The expansion would cost more than $60 million.
David Sciarra, the head of the Education Law Center, said that steep price tag is worth it.
"We have studies that show in New Jersey, in New York and other states, that poor children when they start kindergarten are already a year-and-a-half to two years behind their suburban counterparts," he said, adding that early pre-K helps narrow the gap.
While countless parents received the letter saying their pre-K programs were on hold, Sciarra said it's not over yet. He and his team will continue to fight to make sure that every eligible 3- and 4-year-old will be able to go to preschool this September.
They don't have much time, though, as the budget is set to be adopted in Trenton on June 30th. CBS 2 reached out to Gov. Jon Corzine's office for comment, but received no response.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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