Fate of child care funds in Evers’ budget rests with state Legislature
Governor hopes to make funding permanent
Gov. Tony Evers took a clear stance on child care in his State of the State address: The state must allocate funds toward early care and education.
Evers plans to include more than $340 million in his executive budget toward making Child Care Counts, which has been operating under temporary pandemic funds, permanent. The state stabilization program, which financially supports child care businesses and the families that they serve, is credited with keeping more than 3,000 child care centers open. Advocates warn lack of investment could mean dire consequences for all Wisconsinites.
Evers also pledged more than $11 million each fiscal year for Partner Up, a state grant program that helps employers provide employees with free or reduced child care.
Despite Evers’ intentions, ultimately, the fate of the budget rests with the state Legislature.
Many child care advocacy groups are supportive of Evers’ announcement. Knowing Evers supports Partner Up being in the final budget sweetens the deal, as it is another support for the industry.
“We are incredibly grateful that the governor has taken a position on this and really drawn attention to the key role child care plays in our economy and supporting working families,” said Ruth Schmidt, executive director of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, which has been advocating for funding to continue Child Care Counts.
The pandemic relief money that funds Child Care Counts is expected to run out at the end of this year. Without a new source of funding, DCF Communications Director Gina Paige said, the program cannot continue.
Higher tuition, fewer options on horizon if Child Care Counts excluded from state budget
Before Child Care Counts introduced monthly stabilization payments, most child cares’ sole source of revenue was the price parents paid for care.
A National Association for the Education of Young Children survey found over 60% of responding Wisconsin child cares would have to raise tuition if stabilization grants cease.
For Corrine’s Little Explorers, a licensed family child care in New Glarus, 25% of revenue comes from Child Care Counts. Owner Corrine Hendrickson, who is also the cofounder of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed, said if Child Care Counts is discontinued, she would need to increase her rates by nearly $50 per child per week.
Child care is already unaffordable for most Wisconsin families. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers child care affordable if it takes 7% or less of a household’s income, all children included. Brooke Skidmore, owner and director of New Glarus’ The Growing Tree Child Care Center and WECAN co-founder, said that many families devote 20% to 40% of their household income for one child alone.
In an effort to recruit and retain a notoriously low paid workforce in the midst of a staffing shortage, many child care businesses use Child Care Counts as a way to better compensate their employees. If the program ends, over 30% of Wisconsin providers included in the NAEYC survey said they would not be able to sustain wage increases and bonuses.
And pay cuts will not help the looming staffing exodus, the NAEYC report highlighted.
Of the Wisconsin family child care providers who took the survey, over 30% are considering closing their business or leaving the field altogether. The No. 1 thing that would make them stay? Competitive wages, they said.
The demographics don’t look good, Hendrickson said.
“In family child care, you’re looking at a massive retirement here soon; 52 is the median age, and there’s not new ones coming in,” Hendrickson said, explaining the low profitability of the business doesn’t provide much incentive to enter the field.
Hendrickson said a certain result of Child Care Counts ending will be closures. It’s just a matter of what takes them out first: staff leaving due to low compensation, or parents being priced out of the market, leaving child cares without the revenue to continue.
Having fewer highquality, affordable child care options in a state where over 50% of the landscape is already a child care desert will present further economic woes. Child care issues have been linked to decreased productivity and a depleting workforce. A Raising Wisconsin fact sheet charts the longterm economic impact of the state’s child care crisis at $4.2 billion to $6.4 billion.
What’s next?
While advocates are rejoicing in the wake of Evers’ message about the importance of child care in his State of the State address, there’s still a long way to go.
Evers’ executive 202325 biennial budget is expected to be released Feb. 15. Then, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, with Republicans in the majority, will hold public listening sessions in the spring and create the budget bill that the full Legislature will vote on, presumably by the end of June. The new budget is scheduled to go into effect in July.
Four members of the Finance Committee have confirmed to a reporter they will advocate for Child Care Counts funding to make it into the state’s final budget: Sen. LaTonya Johnson (DMilwaukee), Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), Rep. Evan Goyke (D-Milwaukee) and Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha).
“Child care is as necessary a public infrastructure for our economy as roads and bridges. Our economy cannot function if workers do not have child care,” Roys said.
Other members of the Joint Finance Committee either declined to comment on Child Care Counts specifically or did not respond.
Roys said there could be opposition raised by those who think the responsibility of paying for child care should fall on families alone (she believes it should be a shared responsibility between families, state government and federal government) and who believe there are other, higher-priority investments than child care.
“In years past, you might be able to say, ‘We can’t afford it, we have to spend all of our money on X,Y, or Z (because) that’s a higher priority.’ But that’s just not true this year, because, No. 1: The workforce shortage is a huge conundrum that we need to address, and No. 2: We have the biggest surplus in the history of the state,” Roys said.
For now, WECAN is remaining “cautiously optimistic,” both Hendrickson and Skidmore said, and is continuing to advocate for the committee to include Child Care Counts in the final budget.
Raising Wisconsin and its state collaborative team is also continuing to advocate for investment in Child Care Counts, with bipartisanship being a key point in its talks.
“It’s a bipartisan issue, and we know that there are individuals on both sides of the aisle that can speak to the importance of child care ... and the challenges we’re facing in child care,” Schmidt said.