In terms of cost, New Jersey’s Abbott scholarship program was relatively small—a less than $2.5 million drop in the roughly $1 billion sea of cuts to K-12 and higher education enacted this year by the Christie administration.
But education advocates say the initiative—offering scholarships to employees of preschools in New Jersey’s poorest districts—had tremendous impact.
In the past decade, the program helped more than 24,000 New Jersey teachers and their assistants go back to college or graduate school, according to state officials. And, along the way, its advocates say, the scholarships became an important ladder for women to lift themselves from poverty.
Now the last of the funding under the state’s early childhood scholarship program is set to expire, and advocates worry it could erode the quality of education for the state’s youngest students.
“Those scholarship funds were wonderful,” said Ave Latte, a professor of early education at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft. “There are many of my students that wouldn’t be able to come to school without the support, and it really makes a difference with the children they teach.”
State officials said New Jersey could no longer afford the $2.47 million program. It was among many victims in this year’s state budget, which cut deeply into property tax rebates, school aid and other areas.
The program was launched in 1999, in response to a landmark state Supreme Court decision forcing the state to spend more money on schools in low-income communities. Among its mandates, the Abbott v. Burke ruling required all preschool teachers to have a bachelor’s degree with an early childhood certification.
