Evesham Mayor and Council call for State to fund free, full day kindergarten in all school districts across NJ

Evesham Township Mayor Jaclyn Veasy and Township Council are calling upon all New Jersey State Legislators to support funding in the 2022 budget year to allow all school districts in New Jersey to offer free, full-day kindergarten programs.

As it stands now, 10 percent of New Jersey school districts are not able to offer their families free, full-day kindergarten – leaving the students in these districts with only half-day programs available.

Currently, the only way these school districts can extend their half-day programs to full-day programs for students is by charging families additional tuition fees, usually upwards of thousands of dollars for a given year. This is in addition to the school taxes these families already pay.

These unnecessary tuition payments present additional financial stress to parents who cannot afford to pay.

“As Mayor of Evesham Township, and with the full support of Township Council behind me, we are urging state policymakers to develop a state-wide plan to fund tuition-free, full-day kindergarten programs in every district in the state,” Mayor Jaclyn Veasy said. “We must eliminate this educational discrepancy and grant all children equal access to early learning and the same potential to grow.”

The Evesham Township School District is one such district that is not able to offer a free, full-day kindergarten.

And yet, in recent years, the district has actually lost millions of dollars in state aid funding each year.

In the 2017–2018 school year, the ETSD received about $13.6 million in state aid. By this current 2021-2022 school year, that figure had dropped to about $9 million in aid each year. And that figure it still expected to drop by millions more across the next few years.

This drop comes as the state continues to report a record surplus in funding.

“As a parent, I am keenly aware of the value of consistent education, and as an elected official I am even more aware of the positive impact a strong education system has in a healthy community,” Deputy Mayor Heather Cooper said. “More importantly, the social and emotional learning and support to a student benefits our community as a whole. It is essential that every student in our town is afforded the best educational opportunity from an early age as possible. As a tax payer and resident, education should be equitable no matter what town you decide live in and raise a family. The educational funding disparities place an undue burden on the tax payer at a time when our educational system is needed as we emerge from the longest public health crisis. We urge our state legislatures to reevaluate the funding formula so that all schools can address the lack of full day kindergarten.”

Research comparing half-day and full-day kindergarten shows that children benefit from a developmentally appropriate, full-day program, most notably in terms of early academic achievement, which would help circumvent subsequent needs for remediation or grade retention in later years.

Mayor Veasy and Council also approved an official resolution calling for these funding changes at their March 23 Council meeting, and they have also sent letters seeking support from Sen. Jean Stanfield (Evesham’s representative in the State Senate) and neighboring representative Sen. Troy Singleton, as well as Sen. Paul Sarlo (Budget and Appropriations Committee Chair) and Sen. Vin Gopal (Education Committee Chair).

Click here to read the full resolution or read the sent letters.