ELC News - NJDOE Fails to Release Costs of Expanding Abbott Pre-K Program

A Report on the cost of educating New Jersey’s public school children issued by the State Department of Education on December 11, 2006 did not include any costs for providing early education to three and four year olds, even though DOE staff worked on determining these costs last spring and summer.

Information obtained by Education Law Center through the State Open Public Records Act (OPRA), indicates that NJDOE staff began working on determining the costs of early education last spring and summer. Similar to its 2003 study of K-12 education costs, the NJDOE performed its work on preschool costs out of public view, except for seeking input from a small group of local preschool educators and staff. Experts from the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers and from other NJ universities were not invited to participate, nor were representatives of NJ’s Head Start programs, a critical provider of Abbott preschool. The State’s leading child advocacy organizations, including the Association for Children of New Jersey and the Hispanic Directors Association of NJ, were also excluded from DOE's preschool cost study.

Also unknown is whether the NJDOE used the standards for "well-planned, high quality" early education established by the NJ Supreme Court in several decisons in the landmark Abbott v. Burke education equity case as a basis for its study of pre-k costs. The Abbott preschool quality standards are recognized as among the most rigorous in the nation.

The failure to make these preschool costs public in a timely fashion has contributed to calls to Governor Jon Corzine and legislative leaders to put off work on a new school funding formula for 2007-08. And, the lack of transparency in the NJDOE's efforts to determine education costs, including preschool, is a major reason why many education organizations, advocates and stakeholders are now calling for a new, independent cost study to ensure a constitutionally adequate formula for future school years.

The lack of a credible preschool cost study will likely forestall action on a proposal by the Joint Legislative Committee on School Funding Reform to expand the Abbott preschool program to other lower income school districts. Governor Corzine has also expressed his support for expansion of this nationally acclaimed program, which was ordered by the Court in Abbott to ensure a thorough and efficient education to students in NJ's high poverty urban districts.