NJ Education Report

…because it’s looking more and more unlikely that local districts will have to start up full day preschools for poor 3 and 4-year-olds this September. NorthJersey reports that

This week, Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said unless federal funding for preschool finds its way to New Jersey, the governor’s plans to enroll all low-income children in the state will be put on hold.

This is no surprise — it’s hard to imagine Davy and the DOE ordering districts to freeze all “unnecessary” spending, simultaneously dole out about $11,000 per child (the estimated cost of a full preschool program), plus expect districts to come up with the facilities for the thousands of eligible children. Yet it’s more grist for the mill for poor rural families who argue that their kids are as poor as the kids in the Abbott districts, yet lose out on all sorts of services like full-day preschools.