MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin is just one week away from the Child Care Counts program coming to an end if state lawmakers don’t put money towards it in this current budget being crafted.
Gov. Tony Evers spent his Monday touring child care centers in Eau Claire and Pewaukee to highlight why he believes the investment is so important.
Those visits follow Republicans' recent proposal, which has been met with skepticism by Democrats.
Last week, Democrats gathered at The Learning Ladder in Cottage Grove to draw attention to the potential consequences if state lawmakers don’t find a solution by next week when the pandemic-era program, created using federal funds, ends.
“It’s projected that one in four Wisconsin child care providers could close their doors just like Learning Ladder,” State Sen. Melissa Ratcliff, D-Cottage Grove, told reporters, referring to the results of a survey of child care providers that was conducted by the state’s Department of Child and Families (DCF).
In 2023, The Learning Ladder pushed for more investments in Child Care Counts when, at the time, the program was originally supposed to stop the following year.
Emergency funds earmarked by the governor, however, kept the grants going through June 30, 2025.
Democrats gathered at the facility, which closed in 2024 after money for the program was removed from the Republican budget two years ago, to show how more child care centers could become statistics.
“It is totally unacceptable that my Republican colleagues on the Joint Finance Committee have again and again said to child care providers, ‘Your work doesn’t matter. It isn’t worth it.’ And to every kid in the state, ‘You are not worth it. You’re not worth public investment.’ That’s what Republicans did when they stripped out the Child Care Counts funding,” State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said.
Last week, Republicans released their plan to tackle the state’s child care crisis, including allowing centers to run so-called elementary school readiness programs similar to 4K.
“It really puts back a lot of funding back into the child care centers,” State Rep. Joy Goeben, R-Hobart, explained during a press conference. “I have had centers tell me that this can save their center, so it’s really important.”
Other proposals include allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to work in facilities as assistants, increasing how many children a family provider can have from the current max of eight kids to as many as 12 kids if there is an additional employee, as well as creating both a zero-interest loan for child care providers and a 15% tax credit for business expenses at child care facilities.
“Buying a child care slot or contributing towards a child care slot, any type of expense that has to do with child care, and that is a refundable tax credit to those businesses,” State Rep. Karen Hurd, R-Withee, added.
With no direct investment in child care centers, those solutions were met with skepticism from Democrats.
“What do they say to the family that’s barely getting by and needs two paychecks? What do they say to the widow who has to go to work? Families come in all different shapes and sizes,” State Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay, said.
Meanwhile, the governor’s office is pointing to a new WisconSays Survey that shows 90% of Wisconsinites, including those without kids, said finding affordable, high-quality child care is a problem in the state.
That same survey also found more than three-quarters of Wisconsinites support an increase in state funding to address the issue.