Our Legislation Supporting Preschool Education Becomes Law

By Vin Gopal

Senator Vin Gopal

Our efforts to make preschool education more accessible to families paid off this summer.

The governor signed two of our bills into laws that give local school boards more control in contracting for preschool services, and create a Universal Preschool Implementation Steering Committee. The legislation also establishes the New Jersey Universal Preschool and Kindergarten Act and requires all school districts to offer full-day kindergarten.

Numerous studies show that kids who attend preschool perform better academically throughout their education. That’s especially important right now, as students in New Jersey and throughout the country have performed less proficiently on standardized tests than they did before the school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. The percentage of fourth-and eighth-grade students performing proficiently in math and science tests are even below where they were in 2013.

Preschool provides a foundation for learning both socially and academically that helps children succeed in elementary school. For many children, preschool is their first experience in a structured setting with teachers and groups of children. It helps them learn to share, follow instructions, and begin the foundation for learning that will occur in elementary school.

It teaches them that learning is fun.

It’s gratifying to report that our efforts to ensure preschool accessibility gained bipartisan support in the State Legislature.

The new law creating the Universal Preschool Implementation Steering Committee codifies and expands requirements that the Department of Education has previously established for providing state-funded preschool to build and sustain universal access to high quality programs. The law also requires the Department of Education to provide annual preschool expansion grants to expand free access to high-quality preschool for three-and four-year-old children.

Another of our bills permits boards of education to award contracts for certain preschool education services by resolution instead of by advertisement and public bidding. That legislation extends the term of a contract to three years, which should allow more consistency in the preschool programs. Current law allows school districts to contract for childcare services for just two years.

We will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure New Jersey’s Universal Pre-K initiative is inclusive and sustainable.

It’s also gratifying to report that two of our bills addressing environmental concerns also became law this summer. (In all, 13 bills sponsored or cosponsored by my LD11 partners Assemblywomen Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul and I were signed in July and August.)

One of the bills appropriated $107,999,000 from constitutionally dedicated Corporate Business Tax revenues and various Green Acres funds to the DEP to make grants to local governments for open space acquisition, park development, and for planning projects.

Another bill signed into law makes annual allocations of $500,000 from the Clean Communities Program Fund for public outreach concerning single-use plastics reduction programs permanent. This upgrades the current law that expired after three years.

The Clean Communities Program Fund receives money from user fees paid by the manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers of litter-generating products, as well as penalties, and voluntary donations. The program has used these funds, in part, to establish a bag redistribution program that collects reusable bags and repurposes them for use by food banks, food pantries, and other food distribution programs.