♪ ♪ >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

Coming up in the broadcast, how are kids in New Jersey doing?

The latest Kids Count report is out, measuring their health, education, and more across all 21 counties.

Plus, New Jersey versus Trump.

We look at the nearly 60 lawsuits brought against the administration and who's winning them.

And later, changes to food stamp requirements are having a trickle-down effect on New Jersey's food banks.

We'll get the latest.

But first, the saga continues over the closure of Heights University Hospital in Jersey City.

After closing their doors in mid-March, the operators of the former Christ Hospital, Hudson Regional Health, known as HRH, said last week that they may reopen or move their health care services to another facility in the area.

This comes after state health officials have accused HRH of trying to bypass state laws and regulations that dictate hospital closures.

That's a process known as a certificate of need.

HRH won a recent injunction and succeeded in suspending a public hearing with the Department of Health about the impact of the hospital shutdown.

Local residents and lawmakers have cried foul over the closure and the loss of the emergency room and other health care services in that Jersey City neighborhood.

According to a statement, HRH is "collaborating with its landlord to evaluate the restoration of health care services in the region" and says they remain committed to "working constructively with their landlord, state officials and elected leaders to rebuild and sustain health care access for the Heights community and the residents of Jersey City."

The Department of Health said in a letter to Heights University that any move to restart care at the hospital would require state approval.

The controversy continues over the FIFA World Cup train ticket costs here in New Jersey.

Governor Sherrill and NJ Transit CEO Chris Collori announced last week that tickets would cost $150 for a round trip to MetLife Stadium, which will be called the New York-New Jersey Stadium, and shuttle bus service will cost $80 round trip.

Now, FIFA's already been critical of the proposed plans, but issued a statement late Friday after the official announcement, saying the prices will create a "chilling effect," and called it unprecedented to increase fares and demand that FIFA contribute, saying "no other global event, concert, or major sporting promoter has faced such a demand."

By contrast, Philadelphia will offer tickets for $2.90 to the game, and Governor Josh Shapiro confirmed that all ticket holders will travel home for free using SEPTA, that's the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

But New Jersey isn't the only state raising prices.

Boston has set train fares at $80, and Sheryl and Kalori reject the notion that New Jersey is price gouging, saying they're simply asking ticket holders to cover the cost of transit without putting it on the backs of New Jersey taxpayers.

Coming up, we look at the latest Kids Count report and how they're faring in school and health and more.

That's next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

The Kids Count Report is out.

It's an annual update from the nonpartisan group Advocates for Children of New Jersey that looks at how kids are doing across all 21 counties.

They measure it across a range of demographics, looking at economic security, health, education, and many other measures.

There is some good news.

Some areas are showing improvements, but others are not.

The report highlights some serious concerns, what the authors call a shadow pandemic.

Mary Coogan is president and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey, called ACNJ.

She joins us now to discuss the findings.

Mary, so good to have you with us.

Let's start with the good news.

What are some of the things that are going right here in New Jersey?

So what's going right?

So median income is up for most families.

You see unemployment has just gone up a little bit.

But economically people seem to be pretty steady.

Even though we have concerned about people and the number of people enrolled in New Jersey family care which is our public health insurance system.

It's just back to what it was pre pandemic.

So although there's been 100,000 children disenrolled or have left family care over the past two years, some of that could be because people are back to work and they're now on their parents insurance, right?

Or some of them because they're back to work, they no longer meet the income eligibility.

But I think we're more concerned about the drop off because in certain counties, the uninsured rate is starting to creep up.

Yeah.

So across the state, the uninsured rate is about 4%, which is held steady.

Right.

But let's point out Union is 8%.

Essex is 6%.

Hudson and Mercer are both 5%.

So do you have an indication as to the why there?

This is just anecdotal at this point.

But those are also counties where you have higher immigrant populations.

And there is some concern that because of what's going on from the federal government that people who might have an undocumented person living in their household even while the child might be eligible for family care they are withdrawing from public public programs.

But even for New Jersey for family care a child even if they're undocumented they can still enroll in family care.

It's covered by state dollars as long as the family household meets the income eligibility requirements.

So we shouldn't be seeing those kids drop out.

But I think we're hearing that they are.

What is the impact.

We talk a lot about the impact of being uninsured or underinsured on adults.

We don't often talk about it for kids.

What is the impact if they don't have that insurance.

People don't get the preventive care and when they don't get the preventive care or they don't go to the dentist for the regular checkup and family care covers dental care and a lot of people don't realize that.

So kids might be in pain going to school or they might have be sick or have a cold and a parent because they don't have insurance just waits a little bit longer a little bit longer or a child may suffer from asthma and they don't get their inhaler renewed or they just kind of wait without the preventive and what happens is it becomes more expensive but then the child could get sicker.

You looked at academics and there are some positives right the state invested in early pre-k education expanding that throughout the state but then you also look at achievement scores and help us understand what this shadow pandemic is that the report talks about.

So it's a couple of things.

The preschool the number of kids enrolled in preschool school is over sixty five thousand kids on an annual basis which is wonderful.

And Governor Murphy should be applauded for expanding preschool to as many counties as he could.

I think what we're seeing as a result of that though is there were community community child care providers who sometimes could partner with the preschool program in the school district and that partnership is not being developed.

And so the preschool expansion, which naturally if I can send my child to a free preschool program, I'm going to do that, is starting to have a negative impact on the community provider.

So we're hoping that more school districts and community providers will partner.

That will also give parents more choice.

So if my child's been in a certain child care center and I want my child to now stay in that community provider for preschool, I should be able to do that.

We want to see that.

I think with the other thing that we're seeing with the school, like the older kids, we're seeing more chronic absenteeism.

And chronic absenteeism is where a child misses 18 days of school or 10% of school.

So according to the data we did collect from the Department of Education this year, probably six in 10 schools have a chronic absenteeism problem.

Kids are hesitant.

They're overly anxious.

They're not wanting to go to school.

It could be for a variety of things, which could be the result of the pandemic and sort of being isolated.

It could be the result of bullying or kids having behavior problems, but chronic health issues as well.

Sure.

Absolutely.

And but if they're not in school they're not going to learn.

And while we're seeing the reading at grade level by third grade or eighth grade it's starting to creep up it's not at all where it should be.

Is it true that still half of all third graders are not proficient in math and language.

Yes.

Language arts.

Right.

And if you're if you're not reading by third grade you're always going to be behind.

Right.

Because at that point you used you learn to read and then you read to learn.

Exactly.

So maternal health still a challenge.

We know this is something that First Lady Tammy Murphy made a significant priority during her administration.

But we're just still not there yet.

One of the disparities as we see them laid out in the report.

So I agree with you.

The nurture and Jay campaign brought the needed attention to the disparities.

We are still seeing twice as many African-American moms not getting the prenatal care that we want them to get.

We are also seeing twice as many black babies being born prematurely or at low birth weight than their white peers.

And we're seeing unfortunately infant mortality is for black infants which is meaning dying before age of one.

It's I want to say over twice the state average.

So all of that says the attention has been raised.

We've seen an increase in doulas which can help moms.

I think it's gone from like 80 to almost 200 doulas now who can help pregnant moms advocate for them.

Right.

Or if they feel like they're not being listened to by their doctor or at the hospital and all that's wonderful.

But the disparities is really making us at A.C.

and J. start to think we need to be in the community talking to moms and figuring out what's causing it but maybe we need to be looking at overall health because having a baby takes a toll on your health anyway and maybe if women were healthier when they became pregnant you wouldn't see so many problems.

And we know too often women care for others, take care of themselves last.

It's a chronic problem that exists.

But all good data and certainly for you and your team, a whole lot more to kind of process in terms of understanding what to do about it, right?

We're trying.

All right.

We've got to leave it there.

Mary Coogan, president and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey.

Thank you.

Thank you.

New Jersey has been very aggressive against the Trump administration, leading several lawsuits and joining into dozens more.

We've reported on many of them individually, but our senior writer and projects editor Colleen O'Day has scoured all the suits to see where the states had success and whether all this legal action has actually brought money back to New Jersey.

She joins us now as part of our Under the Dome series.

Colleen, great to see you.

So first, how many lawsuits have there been since this second Trump administration started?

So there's 57 total.

That's up to date as far as I know.

It's a lot, you know.

And the Attorney General Davenport mentioned, she said, that's a lot.

But there are a lot of reasons for that, including in many cases, because there were so many instances of the Trump administration trying to either claw back money or freeze funding to the state.

What's interesting about this is that we've had an administration change here in New Jersey, right?

So many of these lawsuits actually originated with former New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin under Governor Murphy.

What have we seen just in terms of the tone and the tenor of the two administrations and the, I guess, the activity out of the AG's office?

So, there's been a lot of similarity, actually.

You know, back after she was first elected, back last November, Governor Sherrill, then Governor-elect Sherrill, said that, you know, she wasn't going to keep Matt Plattkin on, but that she certainly wanted an attorney general who would have the same kind of aggressive nature.

And we certainly have seen that.

There's been at least about 14 new lawsuits, I can tell you, this year.

Some of those might still be going back to the Platkin time, but it's a lot in one year.

- We're only in the very beginning.

- We are.

- We're only about a quarter through.

It's important to note some of these, and we're going to get into specifics, but some of these it looks like are for monetary gain.

Others are a bit more ideological.

I remember hearing former AG Platkin say that he would file suit against any action that hurt New Jersey residents.

Is that carried on here, where it's like kind of divided between the ideological and the monetary?

Attorney General Davenport said literally the same thing at a budget hearing just a couple weeks ago when asked about that.

She said anything that is going to harm New Jerseyans, interfere with the rights that people have had or the freedoms, the privileges that people have had is the kind of thing that the state is going to go after, especially if it thinks that an action taken by the federal government is unconstitutional.

So we talked about dozens that the state joined in on.

I think that there are, well, I won't do the math, I'm a writer, but let's start with six that New Jersey has led.

Can you kind of laundry list through them and just explain what they are?

So one is the birthright citizenship, which is probably the best known of the suits, certainly nationally, you know, saying that just because you're born in the United States, you shouldn't be a citizen, which is not what has been, not what the Constitution says and not what has been practiced for more than 100 years now.

There was also some federal funding cuts.

There is one that would, involves, they're called forced trigger resets.

It's kind of like a bump stock, something that turns a gun into essentially an automatic weapon, a fully automatic weapon.

We've got the gateway funding, which is of course what we know so well here in New Jersey, the funding freeze.

The most recent one is the Roxbury Ice Warehouse, the lawsuit to try to stop that from happening.

because some could say that's ideological, right?

Others say that there could be real impact if there's environmental harm to New Jersey residents.

How successful has the state been, both under the previous administration and so far under AG Davenport, in terms of actually getting money back to New Jersey?

- So we're 85% in the winning column, the Attorney General says, and there's still an awful lot of suit.

There's still 22 pending, 32 wins, 3 losses.

Pretty good outcome, I would think.

Yes, it would be a very good batting average for someone.

So yeah, in terms of getting money back, for instance, one of the first actions that the Trump administration took was kind of a blanket freeze on funding to states.

The state acted really quickly.

And most of these lawsuits, we should say, are multi-state lawsuits.

So it's not just the state of New Jersey, but we're acting with a number of other states, often more than a dozen.

Three days after the state sued, they won this lawsuit, and that meant that $20 billion was not frozen.

And that's a huge amount of money, you know, when we consider what we spend here in the state.

Was that 20 billion all for New Jersey?

The 20 billion was just for New Jersey.

Because the federal funding that we get is closer to 30 billion, I think.

I think that's going to be going up in the next fiscal year.

But yeah, it's a huge amount.

There have been others that have released smaller amounts of money.

We've got money for educational funding, for health care.

It's just kind of like you name it, and there's money that the Trump administration has tried to block that the state's gotten back.

An interesting kind of debating point here.

There's a recent poll that showed that voters want to see the Sherrill administration work with the Trump administration.

Some gave the caveat when appropriate or when needed.

I'm sure that depends on party.

How do you think the tone and the tenor of these lawsuits creates that type of working relationship?

Because Sherrill did come out very strong, kind of fighting and swinging against the Trump administration.

How does that serve New Jersey?

I think what the state is saying is that it serves New Jersey when the Trump administration is trying to withhold funds that we need, that we've been relying on.

Another area that she talks a lot about, or that the Attorney General talks a lot about, is public safety.

You know, there were some public safety grants, some victims assistance grants, also money that the Trump administration has tried to withhold.

So certainly in that case, you know, this is money or this is activity well spent by the state to get involved in these.

But you know, I certainly think also that when there are, and I know that there are some Republicans certainly in the state legislature who disagree with this, but what the administration is saying is that when we are talking about rights, when we are talking about something like a birthright citizenship, that the state believes is unconstitutional, that it's really their obligation to go after the administration.

And just quickly, how much does it cost the state to pursue some of these lawsuits?

Is the state losing on the front end?

>> I think it's a good question.

The attorney general says we are Not losing, we are not spending Any money on outside counsel.

It's just inside attorneys, Deputy attorney generals who Are doing that.

It's only really a portion.

Despite all these suits, there Are multiple states involved.

We're not picking up a lot of The bill.

>> great analysis for us.

Thank you.

>> thanks, joanna.

>> "under the dome" is made possible in part by the corporation for public broadcasting.

A private corporation funded by the American people.

>> About 1.1 million New Jersey residents are food insecure.

More than 800,000 of them rely on SNAP benefits, commonly known as food stamps.

Well, under the law known as the one big beautiful bill, changes were made to the SNAP benefits program that expanded work requirements for many who depend on SNAP.

So what impact has it had?

Well, new research conducted by the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institute shows that the requirements actually have not increased employment, but they have decreased the number of people eligible for SNAP.

That means more people depending on meals at their local food banks and pantries.

With us now is President and CEO of the Community Food Bank of New Jersey Elizabeth McCarthy.

Elizabeth so great to have you with us.

Thanks for joining us.

Thanks so much for having me.

We know that there are these work increased work requirements.

What are you seeing on your end in terms of how that's played out for recipients.

Yeah the impact is really just starting to be felt.

Those went into place in New Jersey on February 1st with a three month implementation period.

So we're really expecting that in a few weeks is when we'll really see demand start to go up.

But I think the most alarming thing is in talking to our neighbors when they come to pantries.

Just how little awareness there is about these work requirements and how people can comply.

It hasn't really been information out distributed.

So we're trying to do that but obviously can't do it on the wide scale at this point.

Yeah.

What does that.

We're going to get into the food distribution.

But what does that effort look like on your end in terms of education and really helping folks understand what it all means.

Yeah.

We've been working with you know all the pantries in our network which is about 800 really trying to make sure they have the information directing people to the right website.

But it's I feel like there's still every day there's people who do not know that this is changing and that this could affect them personally.

And there's a documentation issue here.

Right.

And like you said only a couple of weeks out since it changed.

But just tell us what it means in terms of paperwork and folks having to complete the right documents.

That's the hard part.

I mean many of the people on snap are working but the documentation is really difficult to complete.

I mean I've looked at the forms.

They're you know a very high reading level that's required.

You'd have to have a computer and a way to upload them.

And also it requires 20 hours every week which some people who are if they're in the gig economy or if they have seasonal employment they might be working a lot more than that.

Let's say in the summer if they have a job at the shore or something.

But in the winter it could be harder to have those hours.

So that's really our issue with you know a lot of the people are working but will not be able to comply with this law.

So what does that mean then for you for the 800 partners that you have across the state who are trying to meet those needs for those who are hungry or food insecure.

Well for every meal that our pantry system even though we provide over 90 million meals a year that's about every one of our meals.

Nine are provided by SNAP.

So if you think of that we would not be able to absorb all of the people that need to come to start pantries after you know if their SNAP benefits run out.

So it's pretty scary.

I mean obviously we'll do everything we can to make up the difference but it's an exponential number of meals.

So folks come to you expecting to be able to use those SNAP benefits or I should say through your partners that are actually delivering some of the food on the ground.

Have you ever had to turn anyone away or tell them I'm sorry you're not eligible for this.

Of course there are other offerings but have you had to do that?

Pantries don't require SNAP.

So that is they can use SNAP at grocery stores, at farmers markets, at different sort of retail food establishments.

Pantries, all the food is free.

You're getting that federal assistance back.

That's how you're getting the SNAP.

Exactly.

What does that mean though for those on the ground who are doing the work, who are serving the food?

Have you had to increase fundraising efforts?

Have you had to ask for donations?

What does that actually look like in practice?

We absolutely have.

And you know in November when snap benefits were cut off altogether I have to say people in New Jersey were incredibly generous and really did help us make up that difference because all of a sudden we had lines literally a mile long in some counties of people who lost their snap benefits overnight and had to turn to us.

So it is really nice that people fundraise that people donate but we cannot make up the difference just by donated dollars.

Help us understand the costs.

What does it cost to feed a family of four.

What does it cost the food bank.

And then how are you able to monetize dollars that you receive.

Yeah every dollar that's donated to us makes up three meals.

So that's pretty good.

We do have very good buying power.

We also have amazing partners grocery store chains those kind of places that donate food to us as well as individuals who have food drives.

So it's very economical if people want to donate money that it is three meals for a person.

But that can only still go so far.

I'm going to go back to that question.

Have you ever had to turn folks away because there's a pantry that simply doesn't have the resources to feed them?

Have you hit that critical point?

We have not at this point because I shouldn't say if a pantry does there's usually another one nearby that they could send somebody to.

But we are concerned that that could happen in the coming months that we would have to either turn people away or give people a lot less food certainly a lot less of the foods that are more expensive like proteins and fresh produce.

There is such a wealth disparity between folks here in New Jersey.

What's your message to those who aren't struggling who can afford to put food on the table as they think about maybe their community members who aren't so fortunate.

Yeah it's so easy to be able to come volunteer either your time or to do a food drive or to donate on our Web site.

There's all sorts of options of ways people can do that.

And we're lucky we have seen people respond in those moments.

Again it's just not the magnitude that we've ever needed before.

So that's our concern.

But absolutely if people can donate I think people are always surprised that you know they know somebody who's food insecure.

They might not realize it right now but it happens in every single community in the state even the ones that we consider wealthy communities.

You just took the next question out of my mouth.

It's not always what we imagine hunger to look like.

Right.

It's not because some families are doing fine and then someone loses a job or there's a huge medical emergency or their car breaks down and there's just kind of enough to put them over the edge that they can't make it to that next paycheck.

That's really great information.

Elizabeth McCarthy president and CEO of the Community Food Bank of New Jersey.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And that's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagas for The Real News Network.

Here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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