On his last day of pre-kindergarten, Misael Rivas left his classroom at the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center in Union City heartbroken. "He’s a little troublemaker," said Kilcenia Rondon, the 4-year-old’s mother. "But he kept saying, ‘I miss my school, I’m lonely.’" Fortunately for Misael, his summer vacation lasted only eight days before he was back in class as...
Adrian Irizarry uses the computer in the 4-year-old summer preschool at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center in Union City.On his last day of pre-kindergarten, Misael Rivas left his classroom at the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center in Union City heartbroken.
"He’s a little troublemaker," said Kilcenia Rondon, the 4-year-old’s mother. "But he kept saying, ‘I miss my school, I’m lonely.’"
Fortunately for Misael, his summer vacation lasted only eight days before he was back in class as one of 90 children attending the Hostos Center’s summer preschool session. The free program is one of dozens of summer preschools started in New Jersey’s poorest districts in 1998, in response to a decision by the state Supreme Court in the ongoing Abbott v. Burke case.
The court mandated free preschool for the state’s poorest districts to equalize educational opportunities and close achievement gaps. But the state went further, adding a set of "wraparound" services — including 10-hour school days, health screenings and six weeks of free preschool in the summer — for any family living in one of the 31 low-income Abbott districts.
This fall, the state is cutting back the program. Only the poorest families will be able to apply for the wraparound services and starting in September parents will have to prove for the first time they either have a job or are in school, according to new rules at the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The new eligibility requirements are expected to save the state $7 million this year, but officials said the cuts aren’t being made to save money. Instead, the changes will make the system — which serves more than 30,000 children — more equitable, said Beverly Wellons, assistant director for childcare operations at the Department of Health and Human Services.
"It prioritizes lower-income families," Wellons said. "It’s fair. When we talk about parity, that’s what we’re looking for — a more equitable program."
The program will now match the income and work requirements of New Jersey Cares for Kids, a federally subsidized program that provides childcare vouchers for low-income families living outside Abbott districts, ensuring children in Abbott districts aren’t receiving more services than children elsewhere.
New Jersey has been gradually limiting the number of families eligible for wraparound services for years. Before 2007, any family living in an Abbott district could sign up. Then, eligibility was restricted to families with incomes at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Last year, the upper limit was reduced again to 250 percent of the poverty level.
Starting Sept. 1, parents who earn more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($29,140 for a family of two) are ineligible, state officials said. Families already enrolled will be grandfathered in under the old eligibility requirements.
Despite the changes, New Jersey remains one of the most generous states when it comes to funding child care, Wellons said.
"Most states only serve families that are at 100 percent of poverty," Wellons said.
However, some early childhood advocates are skeptical of the state’s motivations. Barbara Reisman, director of the Schumann Fund for New Jersey, which supports early childhood programs, said the state is cutting the services to help solve its budget problems.
"The whole point of the program is to address equity concerns," Reisman said. "Equity doesn’t mean that everybody gets treated the same."
Meanwhile, a report commissioned by Gov. Chris Christie recently recommended the state stop subsidizing all pre-kindergarten for poor families and also stop opening publicly run programs like the Hostos Center. Early childhood advocates worry those recommendations mean additional cuts are coming.
Research suggests achievement gaps between poor and affluent students widen over the summer. David Burkheim, a researcher at the University of Michigan who conducted a national study of summer learning among kindergartners, found more affluent children tend to learn more math and reading during the summer while poorer children lose ground.
"These children are sponges," Burkheim said. "They’ll absorb anything in their environment that they can, but the reality is that many children are in environments with very little to absorb, particularly during these early years."
At the Hostos Center, summer preschool classes are organized around themes like insects or the ocean. Learning is infused into most classroom activities, including building with blocks, playing computer games, putting on puppet shows and writing stories. At recess, children get exercise and develop their motor skills by playing basketball, walking on mini-stilts and climbing the jungle gym.
On a recent July day, students in one class began the day with a song — "I’m squishing up my baby bumblebee, won’t my mama be so proud of me" — miming the actions with their hands as the teacher helped them follow along with the words written on the board.
Later, the students colored and glued together their own bumblebees, using strips of construction paper and cardboard bowls.
Several parents said they wouldn’t know what to do without subsidized summer school. Eric Isola, who works the front desk at a hotel, said he is amazed by the academic progress of his 5-year-old daughter Analyse.
"It feels like she’s a grade older," Isola said. "It’s invaluable. She’s not just sitting around the house watching TV."
Sarah Garland is a staff writer at The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet at the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Columbia University’s Teachers College.