Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers visits Jefferson Elementary School in Oshkosh Wednesday, September 4, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Governor Tony Evers said as many as 25% of child care facilities in the state are in danger of closing.
That is if funding for the Child Care Counts program is cut.
On Friday, the secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) discussed the potential impacts and what the future of childcare is within the state.
Members of the childcare community in Northeast Wisconsin have more questions than answers, and they shared their frustrations during the roundtable Friday morning.
“There’s this turnover of teachers. There’s days where I come in and I’m like, ‘Who are you? I don’t even know who you are,'” said one parent.
An announcement Thursday by Gov. Evers reported the “Child Care Counts Program” won’t continue after June of this year due to a lack of funding from the biennial budget.
The program, which began in 2020, was funded by one-time COVID pandemic relief funds. It was extended by Evers in 2023.
“We spend $14 billion on kids in K-12 and I love that,” said Jeff Pertl, secretary of the Wisconsin DCF. “I think that’s a really important investment, but when this money goes away, we’ll be spending a very small amount of money, in the scheme of the multi-billion dollar state budget, on our smallest children.”
Ryan Brown of Waupaca shared his thoughts on how the state has handled childcare solutions in the past.
“Unfortunately, I find very little attraction when it comes to our policy makers, our decision makers, when it comes to that,” Brown explained. “They don’t see the value in that. I think that’s really unfortunate. They don’t understand the vested interest that we should all have on that, because these are future citizens of our county.”
Evers says Republican lawmakers refused the funding.
State Senator Eric Wimberger, R-2nd District, shared his view on Evers’ approach to childcare after his state of the state address.
“We’ve got to help out childcare a little bit. I think his methods are wrong, but I think some of those goals might be achievable,” Wimberger said.
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