Wisconsin's Child Care Industry Continues to Take Blow After Blow

Thursday, June 29th, 2023 -- 9:18 AM

(Madison Lammert, Appleton Post-Crescent) Wisconsin’s child care industry has taken blow after blow in the past several years.

According to Madison Lammert with the Appleton Post-Crescent, another blow is on the horizon. Child Care Counts, the pandemic-era funding program many Wisconsin child care programs have come to rely on, is set to end in January 2024.

When this happens, a Century Foundation report found, an estimated 2,000 child care programs across the state will close, leaving over 87,000 Wisconsin children without care. Earlier this month, the state Legislature's Joint Committee on Finance voted down a proposal from JFC Democrats to allocate $340 million in the 2023-2025 state biennial budget to Child Care Counts to continue the program beyond early 2024.

While the JFC's budget plan does not include Child Care Counts, it does increase funding for programs overseen by the Department of Children and Families, the agency that administers Child Care Counts, by $121 million, which includes a $15 million loan fund for child care providers.

But, advocates warn this isn't enough to stave off an even worse crisis. Child Care Counts has distributed more than $630 million in federal pandemic relief funds directly to 4,956 Wisconsin child care providers since its inception in May 2020, according to DCF.

Child Care Counts grants provide a consistent source of revenue outside just the price families pay for care. This allowed some programs to make long-awaited updates to their facilities, increase wages and bonuses, hire additional staff, prevent substantial rate increases for their families and even allowed some providers to finally be able to make routine contributions to their household's income.

A survey of over 500 Wisconsin child care providers by Wisconsin Early Action Needed revealed that on average, Child Care Counts makes up 25% of a program's revenue.

In order to even remotely continue to operate as they have been, many providers are preparing to increase the price parents pay for care to make up for at least some, if not all, of this potential revenue loss. And this comes at a time when child care is already one of the biggest expenses families face.

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