"We are no longer waiting to close opportunity gaps – we are preventing them from the start," a lawmaker said.
New Jersey has taken another big step towards providing statewide “free preschool and kindergarten” for its residents.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed three bills into law on Wednesday involving early childhood education, including legislation that codifies New Jersey’s preschool funding formula into statute.
The result? A more reliable source of money for local districts that are trying to expand their preschool programs.
The bill – S3910/A5717 – will require the state Department of Education to provide annual grants that expand access to preschool for 3-year-old and 4-year-old children in districts that don’t currently have a program.
The legislation also updates the formula used for determining each district’s allocation of state preschool aid, eliminating the use of “district factor groups” in favor of projected FTE enrollment for the upcoming year.
The New Jersey Senate voted to pass the bill 28-10, and the Assembly passed it by a tally of 53-25 with two abstentions.
Murphy said his administration has made it a priority to “set New Jersey firmly on course to universal, free preschool.”
Over the past seven years, funding for public preschool has increased by nearly $600 million, with New Jersey currently spending $1.2 billion to stand up and sustain programs in communities across the state. Murphy said 229 districts have been added to state-funded preschool programs since he took office.
Currently, more than half of New Jersey’s elementary-serving school districts offer “free, high-quality preschool,” he said.
FREE KINDERGARTEN
According to the governor’s office, the bill also puts the state “firmly on course” to provide free, full-day kindergarten for all New Jersey families by 2030. Attendance at the kindergarten program must be no-cost.
Each elementary-serving school district in the state will be required to have a full-day kindergarten program no later than the beginning of the 2029-2030 academic year. School districts that don’t offer full-day kindergarten by then can meet the requirement by entering into a “send-receive” relationship with an adjacent district.
“With today’s bill signing, we are moving forward in making free, universal preschool and free, full-day kindergarten a reality in every corner of our state,” Murphy said.
Sponsors of the legislation include senators Teresa Ruiz and Shirley Turner, along with Assembly members Andrea Katz and Sterley Stanley.
“A child's earliest years are when curiosity blooms and the foundation for lifelong learning is built,” Ruiz said. “But today, with child care costs soaring to the level of college tuition, too many families are being forced to choose between their child's potential and their household budget.”
“We are no longer waiting to close opportunity gaps,” agreed Turner. “We are preventing them from the start.”
FISCAL ESTIMATE
The state Office of Legislative Services (OLS) released a fiscal estimate of the bill’s impact on July 3.
“Some provisions of the bill may result in marginal cost increases for the state and local school districts, to the extent that current resources are not sufficient to effectuate the purposes of the bill,” the OLS reported.
Other considerations included:
COST INCREASE UNKNOWN - “The bill requires all school districts to provide for free, full-day kindergarten by the 2029-2030 school year, which would result in both local and state cost increases; however, the magnitude of the cost increase is unknown and would be spread across five years assuming this bill first takes effect in the 2025-2026 school year.”
TAX LEVY - “The bill could also result in indeterminate revenue increases for local school districts that first receive preschool education aid in the 2025-2026, 2026-2027, or 2027-2028 school years because these districts would have the ability to exceed the two percent tax levy growth limitation in order to account for additional preschool costs. The allowable increase would be limited to the actual costs of implementing a preschool program, which would vary significantly across districts based on the number of students enrolling and the availability of adequate facilities.”
PRESCHOOL AID - “The provisions of the bill that impact the calculation of preschool education aid would result in no cost increase to the state because the bill largely codifies the preschool funding methodology incorporated in the annual appropriations act in recent years.”
EXPANSION GRANTS - “Additionally, the requirement that the state provide preschool expansion grants is not guaranteed to increase state costs, unless future appropriations acts increase the amount of funds available for the grants. The annual appropriations act in recent years has included appropriations for preschool expansion grants, and the bill largely codifies budget language governing the program.”
OTHER BILLS
Two other bills were signed into law on Wednesday as part of the education package.
The second bill – S4476/A5780 – permits the awarding of contracts for certain preschool education services by resolution of a board of education and extends the maximum contract length for preschools to three years.
The third bill – A5908/S4695 – amends the Fiscal Year 2026 Appropriations Act to revise various language provisions concerning Preschool Education Aid to align that language with legislation (S3910/A5717) that modifies the allocation of Preschool Education Aid.
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