Child Care Providers and Parents/Guardians Testify in Support of Extending Funding for Child Care Subsidies

Friday, October 13th, 2023 -- 12:00 PM

(By Anya van Wagtendonk, Wisconsin Public Radio) Child care providers and parents guardians testified Wednesday in support of a plan authored by Gov. Tony Evers that would extend funding for child care subsidies and other workforce development proposals.

According to Anya van Wagtendonk with Wisconsin Public Radio, the bill reintroduces funding for programs that Evers had written into his budget proposal that were later removed by the Legislature's Republican-led budget writing committee.

It would extend a pandemic-era child care subsidy, establish a paid family and medical leave system and provide grants for the University of Wisconsin System and workforce development programs.

Evers ordered a special legislative session for lawmakers to consider the proposal last month.  Lawmakers ended the session quickly, but Republicans in the state Senate referred the bill to committee, saying they were following proper legislative process.

At the Wednesday public hearing of the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Technical Colleges, child care providers said that subsidies they received during the pandemic had been critical to keeping their businesses open, but that the crisis in their industry predates that.

"I don't know that I could have gotten through the pandemic, I don't know that I could be talking to you today without that support of that program," said Renae Henning, who runs a child care facility in Beaver Dam.

Evers’ bill calls for about $340 million annually to continue the Child Care Counts program, which used federal COVID-19 relief dollars to subsidize child care provider wages and keep costs stable.

Henning said that, without the influx of public dollars, her nonprofit will have to raise costs for parents of infants in an area that is considered a child care desert, meaning there are three or more children for every one available slot in a licensed facility.

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