All right, I got one for Willow
right here.
Not willow, Brownie.
It's willow.
Just mellow, okay?
You think so.
Franklin, I'm
done painting my flowers.
Okay, now can you do it?
Okay, now can you do the background,
like Katie and I said?
What color do you want to do your
background?
You could draw some, maybe you could
paint some grass.
So it looks like the flowers growing
out of the grass.
Or maybe a sunset in the
background.
I want a star.
I want to write
them. It's like a circle.
You're right.
It looks like a star
so I want one.
I put
mine like that too.
That's a good idea.
I like this song, I love it!
Any time you can follow up and talk
to me. Do you want to paint the sky
around the sun?
Look at the sun, look at the moon!
Let's get it.
Those are really cool colors.
It's very springy.
What colors are you going to paint
in the background, Marley?
You don't know?
Maybe think about it.
Let me out.
Don't play with the sun.
It looks like a guy.
It does look like a
funny guy.
She's like, good morning.
Good morning!
I made a sun and a
flower. 5, 6, 7,
8.
Good counting.
I got 8 colors.
Good counting!
All of us 8 colors!
Everybody has 8 colors?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6,7, 8!
She does!
She does.
You do. Do I have
to brush my teeth every time?
Every time I say colors,
what's your name?
Look it.
My name is Jay.
That's how you could leave the
room. You could go through
that.
Now it's time you pick your stats.
I want to paint a
garden.
A garden?
Garden!
You did.
Another!
That is awesome.
More!
Hi, everybody.
All right.
Hi.
Morning. Morning.
It's done.
That is perfect.
You know springtime is coming.
So. Thank you so much.
Now what are you going to be?
This?
You don't know?
Bye mom.
Remember how last week when it was
wet outside, we saw the sun.
Remember that?
Yeah.
Maybe you could paint some more and
you'd take it out.
I want to draw that.
No, I'm going to draw a guy.
A guy,
and the color, and a color
blue.
You can go over it, yep.
I want a lot of blue.
Yep, you can go over the lines and
you can go over your name.
Willow?
As long as you don't go over it with
the color black.
Right? Because your name is black.
So if we paint it in red, then we
might not be able to see it.
G-U-L-I-A-N
You're better than every day.
What are you
doing?
Well, I'm going to the gym.
No.
Look at my name.
M-I-S-E-S.
Red.
My name is Annabelle.
No, but red is kind of like me,
right? My name Annabell.
My name is Annabelle.
Your name is Willow?
Yeah.
Willow.
You're gonna make a guy?
Okay, show me.
Oh, okay.
Can you draw a circle?
Winnie, do you like those?
All right, there it is.
All right.
There you go.
All right?
Jump right here.
OK.
You can
just go off and go like this on rice
and make it pink.
It's not from orange or pink on the
sunrise.
It's a red one.
It's the red one!
You do?
Can you see it on your drive-in?
It's got it in the
mouth!
It's all in your mouth?
Oh, yeah?
How do I make this?
So go like that.
Paint right there.
There's one. You want it in the
middle?
I don't know.
Yeah, but I would look at different
colors.
Yeah, but I would look at different colors so that we
can see the eyes and the mouth,
okay?
What?
Yeah, I think it's a girl
horse.
I know.
It's hard to tell
because the background is colored
paper too, so
it changes the color just a little
bit.
So it changes the color just a little bit
to green because it's nice.
Can you give him a little smile?
Yeah.
The car is brown.
The water is brown, yeah.
That's what happens when all the
cars get stuck together.
You're so pretty.
Bye, boys!
You're gonna borrow your napkin
here, Owen.
On your ear, yeah?
I like the colors you're using.
Yeah, there you go.
Well yeah, but we need some water on
there.
That's good Harry.
Can you put it, there ya go, good
job. And then put it on your paper.
Nice.
Wow, that's a pretty blue.
Oh really?
That makes, do you know what color
that makes?
Teal. What do you want to do next?
Agree, together, make a deal.
Together. Make a deal.
Okay.
I'm done.
I'll do it again.
Whoa.
Oh my god.
I want a cloud.
I'm going to drop maybe a little
cloud. I'm just going to go straight
down the cloud.
Clouds.
Only because you have a son.
Maybe you should get a little blue
and you can do a brownie.
My friends, we are going to
make one more
mark on our paper.
So you can one more color.
And then we're going to start
cleaning it up and we are going to
go outside.
Okay?
So let's do one more on your
paper.
And then you know what?
We'll get to go out and explore.
Thank you so much.
To a cloud, to a bird.
Just do, just like you did a circle,
do a
round and a circle.
Okay, look at it on the drawing
graph, okay? There it is.
Can you help me clean up?
Tell me what I need to do to
clean up.
Just turn it up to sweater.
Alright, so we've got, where do we
brush it? Right there.
Right there? Okay.
Get a weird brush out there.
You ready?
That's good.
Put this in the middle.
Put this right in the metal.
All right, now do you close up
the...
Oh, they're babies!
A little, little, small, it's
just in this room with your
caregivers. Got it.
The other part is
that I could fill this room, but
I can't stop that.
So, and if I have somebody leave,
it's me or it's a good idea.
Wait, wait, wait.
Or I tell parents I don't have child
care for them, which is something I
don't want to do.
No, so you
mean parents that you already have
you don't want to tell them.
Sorry not today, right?
Yep
And would you do infants in the
other room also?
Are you saying? I did at one time.
I did at one time. At one time I had
65 and I had 30.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,
33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 44
That shows you.
Yes, and I am
Sam Leckie,
now fielded in the engineer of my
Spanish speakers.
Hi. Hi.
And Julian, that's her son that you
were sitting next to.
Oh great, I painted with Julie
and he did a wonderful job.
Yes, so most of my
staff now are, I like to
say, more mature in their 30s and
40s, but they know why they're here.
They know what they're doing is
important. Sure, sure.
Sometimes it's hard to hold on to
untrained young people.
Well, having had twins,
it can get stressful, you know?
So knowing you can get through it.
Thank you.
Bulletproof.
Boy, they are different sizes.
You came out big, didn't you?
Yes.
Fisher and Andy.
Yep, Fisher and Andy.
Hi.
And they're four months?
Yeah. Oh, they look like they came
out pretty well.
Yes, you did.
Good job.
Take care of your mom.
Something else to take care of?
And then, in the springtime, the
gardens come up here.
Yeah, I saw that coming in, that's
amazing.
Yeah, so Katie is in charge of all
of that. Okay.
She does the gardening.
And in the back, she, so.
We have gardens a little bit of
everywhere.
We're working on a native garden out
front, too.
So this will be the first year of
pop-tubes after we plant.
Oh, that's fun.
Yeah.
And do you?
And do you, do you um, the kids
help and?
Yes, they do.
Especially with our veggie garden
back here in Maine,
they are really good helpers.
Finding all the tomatoes they can
offer. They're pretty good over here
so we get a lot of them.
Oh, that's fun.
Yeah, and they do help with the
chickens. Yeah they do, they're
really good helpers
And are you guys, Heather,
outside year-round?
Or do you make the effort to come
out and be outside?
Outside. I saw a staff that is in
the single digits.
We're not going to, you know.
Sure, sure, sure.
Okay, I'm missing it.
It's pretty cool.
And so how, so from,
you have four mental twins,
what's the youngest?
I'm gonna have to get started next
week.
Okay, so six weeks and the
oldest is...
Um, well, just turn it to 12,
so that creates strength.
Are you taking that just in the
infant room, or in the...
In the center.
That was it.
So that would be like after school
care.
Yeah, okay. And summer care.
Okay, got it.
And depending on, for those
intermediate, sometimes I get a B4
school because the intermediate
starts a little bit later than
everybody else, so if parents need
to go to work, then I have them in
the morning and I catch the water.
So it's a different dynamic with
12-year-olds here, I would imagine.
Yeah and it's just after school and
grandkids I've only got like three
or four of them and
most of them are kids that had
they're either teacher kids or kids
that have been here forever.
Got it.
Got it so they're not just
being dropped from the sky
I'd put them to work honestly
Honestly.
Nap in the afternoon.
That kind of thing.
Do you prepare all the food, or do
they bring their food? They bring...
They bring their own lunch, provide
morning and afternoon snack,
and then milk or water with poultry.
Got it Neal, got it there.
And how long have you been in the
center?
20 years. Wow.
And I live in this neighborhood, so
I give my mother credit.
We were taking a walk in and she
said, well that building would make
a great priest.
And I was like, oh.
And there it is.
I'm 11 months later.
Was it like an empty church at that
point? It had sat vacant for three
years. Okay, got it.
A lot of help from the Department of
Children and Families to get that
license that way.
And then I did have a business
partner, but since 2014
I've been here.
Okay.
Um, yeah, this is our space.
Sure. Katie brings them in here.
We try and utilize it
one time per week.
Okay, um, and I must tell you Lucas
too, I own this building.
Okay?
So and I be very
transparent with people.
My mortgage is like $1,500 a month.
So that's why I
can do this here.
If I didn't own this buildings
or if my mortgage was more than
that, this would not.
Be viable.
So I have that flexibility.
Yeah, yeah, so you're
not subject to raising costs
or...
Or like five grand a month for
rent.
And, you know, like that would not
be a
sustainable number for
me.
Plus, somewhat,
you are building equity and
wealth in that process.
Wealth in that process.
Because if I ever retire, this is
the only thing that I can't.
But I mean, I think when you think
about like, you know, being able to
access working capital or things
like that, you know, having
ownership of the building
is gives you some
more viability in the eyes of
banks and things like that.
Right, so yeah, so this does.
And we bought it in 2010.
We weren't renting it at first.
Okay.
But they were really wanting to get
rid of the building.
You're like, sure, we'll take that
over. Yes, we will do that more,
but that's not fair for us.
Yeah. So. Yeah.
And what, on
average, what's a
three-year-old per week?
Right now, because
I knew above, over than
two and under two, or like, right?
Okay.
Okay, that's your break.
Yeah,
so full-time, and I don't have any
parts. Like, I don't have, like,
preschool in my kids or whatever,
they're just gone for the morning.
All my kids need full care
for the day.
So, it's about $287 for
a preschool, for five days.
Infants are about $3.15 right
now,
which is, there are a couple of
centers in town that charge quite a
bit more, but then
the rest of us are about in
that price range.
And do you, it's really a question
of space.
And I mean, if you have a
waiting list of.
16 months or 18
months, you
could raise your prices.
The last time I raised, and again,
I priced two people out.
So then we're at this.
Yeah. Yeah.
Right, and you have young families
and you're trying to make it all
work.
I'll just go around and do
introductions one more time, and
then we'll start with my discussion.
Thanks, everybody, for being here.
I'm Heather Murray, and I
have been a resident of Wannake for
20 years and owned this
child care center for 20 years, and
currently sit on the school board.
Here's my other hat.
I feel like you have four other
hats, Heather, but okay, we'll go
with those, too.
Hi, I'm Dana Schmock and I'm with
the Wisconsin Early Childhood
Association and the Director of
Engagement and Membership.
Good morning, I'm Steve Summers, I
work for Wanaki School District,
25th year in schools
here in Wanaki and 32
total.
I'm Joan Ensign,
and I'm the current school board
president.
I've been on the board 15 years.
I'm Chris Sunday, also on the school
board, just finishing up my first
year.
I'm Carly Eaton.
I'm also finishing up my first year
on the school board and I have two
girls who are in child care at
another center in town.
Got it.
How old are they?
Well, so one of them is in second
grade so she goes to after school
care and the other one is
four.
Good morning, Monica Kelsey Brown,
Superintendent, Wannakeet Schools.
I will be completing my second
year here, six
total as a superintendent,
and 36 years of education.
Amazing.
Thank you.
I am Chris Dillson.
I have been a child care provider
for 25 years and
then retired, and then I
went to work with the Madison School
of History.
So I've been involved in family and
child care education
and growth for a number of years,
and that's where my heart lies.
And so I wanted to be here to hear
more and see more.
And...
Hopefully some positive things come
down the road for our families and
our children and our workforce.
So some of the conversation
will also
be around get kids ready from
the school board perspective.
But we've had to navigate that.
And I should say, preemptively,
Wanakee has always done a very good
job. There's a community-based 4K
program here.
So all of the 4K
is in the centers.
I currently don't have a
contract with the school district,
only because I don't meet the
enrollment requirements that I have,
since I'm smaller. Got it.
And we're all here because child
care is a complicated issue.
I mean, you've got families who need
accessible and affordable child
care. And you also have providers
that need
to keep their doors open.
And we are struggling
at the moment.
And by the time you would be
webinar, I mean legislatures
have gaveled out all of it.
We're just sitting and still
talking, but we're sitting here
trying to figure out.
How to support everyone.
So I know your plan and I did make
copies, I don't know.
So we can hand that out.
Thank you for doing that
So can you just explain to us how
both sides will be supported within
your plan?
So first off, I'm Missy Hughes,
and thank you all for taking the
time out of your day to
come and chat with me.
And I really wanna have a open
roundtable dialog with you all, but
I'll just tell you a little bit
where I've been and why
childcare is so
important to me and understanding
how that will really
help Wisconsin grow overall.
So I'm the mother of three.
I had twins and then
a third, so I had three under
the age of two.
And at the time that I had
my three, I was
practicing law in a
private practice.
And if you know anything about
that, it means that you're taking
care, watching your time in six
minute increments, and then
you have three kids and
trying to figure that out.
So very quickly realize
the challenges around.
How you try to
work as both of
Tripp and myself were working, and
then managing the
three.
And we were living in Fort Collins
at the time and
had ended up having some
young women who were studying early
childcare education at
Colorado State University come
and be at the house taking care
of my three.
That's kind of how we navigated
that.
And it was really my first
introduction to early
childhood.
Early childhood care
providers and watching these
young people really
want to start their careers
and devoting their careers to
taking care of our youngest
was really interesting and
incredible for me to see.
And I was the youngest of seven,
my mom was also a working person,
she was a doctor and
so she would drop me
off at the Y in town,
and I was terrible to her.
I would scream and cry, and
please don't make me go.
And then as soon as she left, I was
fine.
But just all of these dynamics.
And so worked
through my career, came
and moved to Wisconsin, and
worked at Organic Valley.
And one of the amazing things of
coming was everybody knew that I
was a young mom with three
little ones.
At two o'clock, I was like, I gotta
go, I gotta pick up my kids.
And so the organization was
very flexible and open to
the fact that I was a working mom.
And so we got used to that and that
was the mindset at Organic Valley.
We started a parental leave policy.
We really were trying to be
as family friendly as we could be.
And then six years ago
when Governor Evers asked me to be
the lead of economic development
for the state.
I came and I
thought that living in
Lafarge and Viroqua,
we had a childcare desert and that
was a singular problem for us
because we were super rural.
And then all of a sudden was
confronted with what is happening
statewide when it comes to
childcare.
And hearing that especially
young mothers were leaving
the workforce because they didn't
have childcare, I literally
said to.
The cabinet and to Governor
Evers, my mother would be rolling
in her grave right now if she knew
that people are
leaving the workforce,
especially women, are leaving the
workforce and we haven't solved this
problem.
And so Emily Anmanson and
I, the secretary of
DCF at that point, locked arms
and said, how are we going to
be thinking about this?
How can we start talking to
businesses and start talking to
legislators?
And because I was representing
economic development, I was working
with businesses and
could carry that language forward
to legislators, especially
Republican legislators who really
only talk business.
And as I'm talking with them,
confronting the fact that most of
them had wives at home who took
care of their children and didn't
understand, why can't you just stay
home with your kids?
Why do you need to go to work?
And I was also able to say,
look, I'm talking to businesses who
are losing workforce, and
they are desperate for any kind of
worker at this point, and especially
young women they want
in their workplaces.
And so we slowly were having those
conversations, but as
we know, the
progress has been minimal and
at times stepping backwards, and
certainly the pandemic really
stepped backwards in in many ways.
Um, so I've, I've been very
much of a mind of where
are the solutions?
How can we find the solutions around
childcare?
Um, and now, you
know, as, as running for
governor, we've dug back in
and said, okay, what can we
do?
Um, And although
I had, uh,
some success talking to businesses,
some success talking, to legislators
about making changes with our
system. And the reality was.
As you all know, we still have a
very, very broken system.
And so digging into the proposals,
it became clear to me that what
we need is a massive investment
in child care.
And we need to fix this challenge
that the state is facing.
We can't just continue
to nibble around the edges
and hope we're going to come up with
an innovative solution that works in
Viroqua or works in Wanakee.
We need a statewide solution.
So my proposal is.
Both on, to Heather's point,
both on the side of reducing
costs for families and having
the state step in with investment
on that side of the things, but
then also very aggressively working
to bring in more
educators to support
those folks who are saying this is
like you all have done,
saying this what I wanna do
with my career and making
sure that we try to stem
the tide and stem the tied and
then get on the plus side.
Of having educators so that Heather
doesn't have an empty room that
could have 30 more children
in it.
So the essence of
my proposal is that massive
investment. I'm very focused.
My platform is about building the
economy in Wisconsin.
And the reality is that
by investing in child care,
we will build the economy and
Wisconsin. The research shows that
for every dollar you put into child
care. Turns into $8 back
in the economy, because you have
parents who are able to get back
to work. You have parents that are
able to get promotions that are able
to be fully present at their
work. And then, of course, you have
the incredible benefits of making
sure that children are taken care
of at the various earliest ages
throughout their educational
career. So it's
both sides of making sure we're
thinking about supporting providers,
creating more educators, but then
also immediately addressing
costs with investment from the
state, and we will see the long-term
benefits of that as a state.
We'll see more people moving here
because Wisconsin will be a leader
when it comes to child care.
We'll seeing families staying here
because they know they can raise
their families here, and all of
those benefits will unravel
and come forward, but we
have to make that investment first.
Thank you.
I'm going to open up the
feedback question.
Where do you see that funding?
I think we need to look
at the surplus first
and take some of the surplus.
I know there's gonna be
conversations about what goes to
public schools, what goes the
childcare, but I think those need to
be the two focuses of
our investments from the
get-go to help support
making this more affordable
for families.
And then I think we have to continue
to look at other opportunities
around our.
Where do we work with our technical
colleges with apprenticeships
for the educators and making sure
that we're supporting the educators
coming through potentially with
debt-free schooling and
pieces like that.
And then continuing to
build the overall pie of our economy
so that we have more resources to
be able to support the
investments that we wanna make in
childcare and in our public schools.
Do you have any specific plans
for, aside from
finding more teachers and educating
more people, teaching teachers,
how to maintain the
people who are already working in
child care?
I've been working here about
five years now.
There are definitely places
that I can go, because I do have a
teaching degree, But I probably
could.
Be making more money, right?
But I love this work.
And so how do you entice
people to stay in
this when it's
so hard to just get
by with the
funding that we're providing, or
not provided at this moment?
Like, aside from pulling in new
teachers, how do plan on keeping the
teachers that are here?
For sure, and I think there's
two big pieces to that.
One is making sure that
you are receiving a livable
wage, and not just a livability
wage, but a sustainable livability
age.
And so where we need to invest
in that, we bring in the investment
to support providers in doing that.
The other piece I think that I
consistently hear is around benefits
and being able to provide
benefits.
And there is an
opportunity for Wisconsin
to create a small business
cooperative to be able to
purchase health insurance.
So to be a part of a cooperative,
which is I worked for a cooperative
for 17 years, so I'm dedicated
to that model.
And I understand that if
you all decide, if small businesses
decide to go to market together,
they can have the strength to be be
able purchase health care.
And so creating that opportunity and
making it as easy as possible for
small businesses like Heather's to
invest in that.
Heather could have health insurance,
but then also provide that to you.
So thanks for sharing your handout
on Unlock Wisconsin.
Would you be able to comment
on how get kids ready and
what our board has been navigating
this year, which is the possibility
of losing or competing
with centers over four-year-olds,
which we've shared with the board
could cost millions of dollars
to Wanakee taxpayers over the
next five years.
How does get kids, ready fit
into your unlock Wisconsin plan?
So I'm gonna admit that Get
Kids Ready was developed
as I was leaving my
role. So I'd love to hear
more about where it's causing
the challenges,
because it's, I think it's
for me, learning about the
childcare model over the past few
years and having to explain that
to people, it'd be helpful for me
to hear like directly, like where's
the rub? What's happening with that?
So I was just going to say, when we
first learn about
get kids ready,
understanding that we have this
issue across the state,
the unintended consequences on
K-12 public education.
It would be interesting to know if
that was even part of the discussion
when it came down the pike.
I learned about
Get Kids Ready about
August-ish of last year
through a Dane County
superintendent's meeting where a
superintendent said, hey,
has anyone heard about
Get Kid Ready?
And then subsequent conversations
ensued around, well,
are you a K-12 site that
has your four year olds in your
buildings?
Are you a district that has
community sites much like
much like ours?
Um, some, there's some hybrids, um,
community districts who have hybrid
models. But ultimately, when you
look at, I think what I would
say is it all boils down to
our school funding formula and
the fact that it has been around for
a very, very time I would
encourage you if you went to
think about can we bring
a task force together to really
think about Wisconsin school funding
formula and look at all of those
moving parts equalization aid
now we have the kids ready the
the board has navigated
several iterations of what we think
4k may look like
here I wanna key and
you know we're getting ready to end
our school years March already
preparing for 26-27.
And so that's it.
Special education funding, all of
those pieces are
moving parts to what
we have to think about in
K-12 public education.
And so ensuring that
K- 12 educators are at
the table, and maybe
they were I don't know, but ensuring
that someone is at the table to
engage in those conversations from
the respective districts
who have, community.
I came from a district where 4K was
in the building.
We have districts who are pulling
4K'ers from
their community sites and bringing
them into their buildings
for headcount really
is what it all boils down to.
And so what does that mean though
for the community sites?
And is that for get kids ready?
Yes, for get kids ready.
So there are a lot of moving parts
in this space and I would just I
encourage you to think about making
sure the proper
or the appropriate individuals are
at the table to really think
through, you know, what this might
mean as we now navigate
the unintended consequences
of get kids ready.
And I do think.
That, again, when you've got
good relationships with
providers and your 4K is within
the community
sites, but it's still the school
district.
It's just it's hard.
It's been really messy.
And now I didn't advocate for that
when I went through. This wasn't
part of what I when
the budget was going through.
I do think it was something that
they decided to Put
in there because I don't think to 4k
sites is good for parents.
It's not easy on providers
It's done, you know, and it was
intended for places who maybe
don't have a 4k program some
districts You know so providers
can get some extra cash flow
Because again, they were afraid to
give investments directly to
providers. Yeah
Yeah, you know, to Dr. Brown's and
Steve's point, it's causing
significant issues, especially
around our budgets.
And then again, having to go back to
taxpayers through referendum.
You know, and it really it's not
just get kids ready, but it's also
the state equalization aid formula,
like Dr. Brown said, and now
this is compounding it by having
significant impacts to
our budgets in the millions.
And it's resulting us to have to
perpetuate this.
Referendum cycle right that
never ending because we're not
adequately getting funded and
now we're looking at a delta of
millions of dollars that then has to
fall back in the local tax
period to the lack of public
education funding.
So can you just help me understand
that how it's having the unintended
consequences of costing
your school district millions of
dollars?
So providers get to choose,
have to choose between
get kids ready, which is the county
or the state program through the
Department of Children and Families,
or if your district
has a 4K program, you
have to chose between those two.
You can't do both.
So if a provider, one of the
providers in town chose not to have
a contract with the school district,
which I also have to say the school
districts lifted up the
reimbursement to for providers
to get you know more
pursuant.
They take those 40 kids
and educate them within the center,
but they're not enrolled in the
school district.
So the school doesn't get them
for account.
So, speaking from
the parent perspective, like my
daughter, my younger daughter, will
be in 4K next year
and has gone to a
center since she was 12 weeks old
that opted out of
working with the school district
next year.
And like I,
from the child care provider's
perspective, I get it, like you
gotta go where the opportunity is
to like...
Have the most support so that you
can you know continue to have
infants like what I
the backup a Few
years for a second here when I
got pregnant with my younger
daughter I told my husband and then
I told our child care center because
we like needed to be on that list
um and every one of my daughter's
classmates either had an older
sibling already at the center or had
a mom who was teaching there
like there weren't any firstborn
children who were able to get infant
spots because of how the priority
goes and the spots are all filled um
so she's been there since she was a
baby we want to keep going there but
as a school board member i know that
if we keep her there
day to do her 4k
then I'm hurting the school district
and like how can I as a school
board member do that?
Like how can i as a community member
do that?
Right. Like that's you know
essentially making a decision to
be okay having to raise my own
property taxes again and it's
it's just this whole like forcing
child care providers to
choose And
forcing the school district to be
put in a position of competing.
It's clear that we're not properly
funding either.
We're setting them both up to fail
and that is bad for
Wisconsin communities.
It's bad for families.
It's back for children.
Bye.
In a little more context,
WICA was also advocating for a
significant investment into child
care.
But I think part of the reason maybe
4K was, or the four-year-olds
were addressed as in child care,
4K...
The ratios are much different,
obviously, for four-year-olds than
for infants. So when 4K was brought
into school districts, that had the
unintended consequences of hurting
community sites who depend on those
four- year-olds to offset the
cost of infants.
So infant rooms typically operate at
a loss because it's a 1 to 4 ratio.
So I think that's kind of where it
came from, and then obviously it
trickled down on others unintended
consequences of child care
programs in communities, which not
all communities have great
relationships with this community
district that work well with
them. So I because Wisconsin,
like you stated, the child
care landscape
is so different from
community to community, so it's
hard to have a program like this
completely fix either side of it.
I think, I'm gonna go back to
Monica, your point about the task
force and coming together
for a new conversation about how
these things are funded.
So I worked for Organic
Valley for 17 years.
I did economic development.
My focus has not
been on public school funding and
childcare funding, except
to say this is a problem that we
need to solve.
And coming in with a fresh
perspective, of my observation is.
This has been
a 20, 25
year series of
compromises and tweaks
that have resulted
in a system that has moved us
away from being the education state,
moved us from being family
friendly.
And it perhaps is really
time for a major reset and
you know, as you think about the
potential of having a
dramatically different legislature.
And hopefully still a democratic
governor, dedicated to education
and childcare.
Like we have an opportunity to
say, okay, the
kind of duct tape and
veiling wire system that we have set
up here is no longer working, and
it's time for a full innovation
on this.
And so having kind of a.
A fresh perspective is both
idealistic
and perhaps naive on some of
these things, but I think that
there's an opportunity for a real
new conversation on this.
As I talked with business
leaders about,
well, you have a child care desert
in
your community,
as we looked at it even at Organic
Valley, it was always this,
well, the child care.
Model just doesn't work,
and then understanding that impact
of 4K and how
that, you know, you took,
and talking to CEOs, I'm like, so
you took your revenue producer away,
and now you're, you're stuck
with the products that you're just
not making revenue on, and that's,
and CEOs would be like, oh, well,
that doesn't make any sense.
I'm, like, right, you now, so that's
where, and you know. And then I
think public school funding also is,
you know, will you have to.
You know, you have to provide the
special needs and the special
education.
You and you're not getting paid
for that fully.
And then what's promised is never
what's right.
What's promise is never there.
And, you know, at the end of at the
end of the year, you have to move
everything around and figure out how
you're going to pay for things.
And then, you know, the things that
we often value arts
and music, sports
are the things that are
taken away and.
That's the choices that the public
schools have to make.
Or you have to go to a referendum.
And that's the one thing I will say
as I travel around and talk to
communities.
Communities that are under constant
referendum, that aren't
passing their referendums,
are communities that are spiraling
downward.
And communities that have figured it
out. Communities that have figured it out.
We're also penalized in terms of
funding they receive.
You know, and to your point before
about unintended consequences is
that it then makes school districts
have to potentially looking at
can we no longer fiscally
be able to
leverage community sites.
So then taking all that 4K
funding away because now
to be good stewards of taxpayers
and help support education
we have to bring it in house.
And then what is that gonna do
to those centers that now no
longer have any 4k revenue and that
may close doors and we're mindful
You know Jones been very public
about our great relationship
with our community centers But there
comes a point where it's no longer
sustainable, you know And
I think two things to revenue point
to take forward is like
dr. Brown was looting to you know
Even with special education
reimbursement.
We're not getting what the
legislature promised
Yes.
Right, which is significantly
impacting us again and
it's a death by a thousand paper
cuts, you know, and our concern
is now going back again for
another referendum in November
that eventually the community with
the economy that's going on
globally and locally is just going
to say enough, right, and
that's our concern and then it's
going to put us in a very typical
position.
Well, an added piece I would put on
top of that, not that we want to put
anything on top of it, is people
opening their property tax bills and
then holding the public schools
accountable or to
blame for, you know, and that's
another place where I think we like.
Let's, how can we tear that
apart? How can we stop that
conversation, especially when you
have an aging demographic overall,
the whole state, and folks who are
on fixed incomes or
who are at the point in their lives
when they're like, well, why do I
have to continue to support the
schools?
Of course, I think most of us
disagree with that mindset, but that
mindset is there, and so how do you?
And so how do you? Well, and they're
forced to because they don't have, I
mean, such a limited income.
Right. And then when those tax
bills come and they are like taking,
you know, another 20%
of that limited income,
you can't blame them for
that reaction.
You know, what you said is our
district this year actually
found revenue
from a
capital referendum and,
you know, savings and refinancing
to lessen the burden
to our taxpayers.
But I'm sure few
taxpayers know what we
did as a district,
you know, we could have easily spent
that money on a new roof or
higher salaries for our teachers
or other needs we have.
But we felt compelled
to keep those
taxes at a minimum.
But it's not even noticed,
I believe, by many
people. Than that
funding, I mean,
the lack of...
Inflation keep up that
we've been experiencing for 15
years is I mean
we have an extremely
talented financial
advisor here who
has done miracles
with the small amount of funding
that we get but you know
that is be you know we've
gone to referendum I think every
other year One time,
yeah, one time it was during
the pandemic we had to go
again the following year.
Our community has been incredibly
generous, but
to what end?
To what end, right?
And there are a lot of
communities...
And there are a lot of communities that like
don't, they don't have any more
places to pull a bit of money from.
And we are just above them for a
month from the back
closets under the
mattress.
And have needed to bring 4K in-house
and are like killing child
care in their community, like making
that problem even worse because they
just, there are no other options
left.
Can I ask your perspective on
the surplus?
So right now there's discussions
about special ed, there's discussion
about a rebate going back to folks,
there is discussions on the school
property tax levy credit
equalization aid.
So do you have a perspective
on in the conversation that's going
on right now?
Do you think something's going to
happen, especially to
our board members who are hearing
about the $1 million difference
with special ed between
42% this year,
45% next year, and what's actually
being paid out?
Do you have a perspective to share
on that conversation?
Um, I have not been
tracking as much what the
current conversation is,
um, just by
nature of the beast that I'm
involved in right now, uh,
but, you know, what I will say
is I
think that the property tax
rebate conversation is
the wrong conversation, and,
you now, I know that, you, know, it
might be that the governor agrees to
that.
But I would disagree
in that I believe
that Wisconsinites pay their
property taxes with the intention
that those property taxes will get
reinvested in the state.
Not that they will sit in Madison
for six years
that I've been in my position
as having a surplus every year
and having that not be reinvesting.
And then, oh, here, we're gonna give
you a check for,
you know.
Arguably probably a very minimal
amount and that
that you know as Wisconsinites
It's a we believe that investing
in our schools and our
infrastructure is critically
important and why hasn't
that happened and that's why I think
you see you know the changes that
we're going to see in the
legislature because people are
tired of where the
current dynamic has taken us
And I you know that the conversation
around equalization and
Like, good lord, you
know, I mean, it's more of
the tweaking and the duct taping
than really setting out the...
Right, right, and why
not say, like, we're, you know,
put it out there and agree, and I
think that's what's going to start
to happen with our current
elections, is we agree
we want to support our public
schools, full stop.
What does that mean?
Let's make it happen, and be
dedicated to that, and I'm adding
childcare into that because I
believe it's a zero to 12,
and we have to be educating
all along there.
In your plan,
you talked about massive investment,
how do you target that investment?
Where's the money going?
So it would be going first
to support in the first
year bringing affordability
to families so
that there's a 7% cap on.
So is that money to families,
money to providers?
It's continuing the system Wisconsin
shares that is in there that
is currently in working.
And
raising the level of
folks who are able to
access that to
the median income in
Wisconsin first
year.
So the first year, you're at
7% cap if you fall
below that income level.
The second year, I'm gonna raise
that income level so
that more families are able to
have that 7% gap there.
So that's where that piece
of investment goes.
Does that make sense?
It's confusing.
And Wisconsin shares the current
program that people who
get their child care payments.
Right, subsidies from the state.
Does that go to the provider then?
No. I'm sure it goes to the family
or?
If it stays with the system they
have now, it goes on a card that
gets reloaded and then they pay to
a certain system and then the money
gets transferred over.
What is that median income
now?
Now, currently, as
we sit here today, it's 200%
of the federal poverty level,
which is about $64,000.
I would raise that in the
first year to $85,000,
and then the second year is the
significant jump to
a family of making about $190,000
a year, which is
still, you know.
A significant, when you're
making that, even though that sounds
like plenty of money when
you are paying a second mortgage,
it's...
Very difficult.
So that will ease some of the
affordability challenges, but then
at the same time, you know, supply
and demand, you have to be also
being sure to think about how can
we make sure that the slots that are
existing like Heather's are able
to be utilized for the families.
Because even if you have more
affordability, if there's no access,
it doesn't do you any good.
Just a couple other questions for
you, sort of
related or not.
Do you have a perspective on
the annuitance bill that's
in, or
I think it's in the assembly right
now.
So, the gist of it
is,
if you retire from the Wisconsin
retirement system,
and you choose to want to come back
to a K-12, This is safe for, I'll
use myself as an example, I'm not
going anywhere.
I'm just saying, for example, I'm
retired and I took a
gap year, it just didn't work for a
year, but they decided that I wanted
to go back and be a superintendent
or just a teacher.
I love teaching, I love what
I do.
That seems like a bill that's.
A no brainer in terms of
understanding that our educator
pipeline is decreasing over time
and it's not just teachers.
It just it runs the gamut.
We can speak to that from our
principal pool that we just had.
We're very fortunate here in
that we have a high teacher
retention rate.
However, we're all you know, no
one gets any younger over the years.
And so just wanted to know if you
had a perspective on the
new attendance bill.
And then alongside that,
I think if we can create the space
that we have very talented educators
in every single school district,
including our professionals.
And I really believe if we can
create a space for them to be
able to acquire
their license while
they're working, sometimes
they have children as well, right,
so they're navigating to the child
care space as well.
If we can create the space to
figure out a very creative way
for them, to be able to acquire,
their licenses while they
are in our buildings working, doing
this great work,
I think that would be awesome.
And I'll just share with you,
probably two years ago, I wrote a
bill for that and went to Madison to
testify around making
that happen for paraprofessionals.
And then it made it to Governor even
if he didn't sign it.
But the point is,
I just think in K-12 education,
we have to get really, really
creative around
how we're going to sustain many
of the moving parts in our spaces
to to maintain
all of the great work that's
happening with our students.
And so we need our adults, we need
our peer professionals, we meet our
teachers, but how do we get more
people in the space to
and retain them so that
we can place that pipeline on
the upper trajectory again.
Well, I think both of those those
tracks that you're talking about are
tracks that incentivize people
to come into education So why
wouldn't we to your point have
those types of opportunities?
It's an it's a no-brainer on the a
new a new in new a
tent funny word
You know that seems like a no
brainer I can imagine that
There were concerns around licensing
requirements and making sure that
we were tracking that perhaps
resulted in the no
signature for that, but I agree that
finding creative ways to
help people move through the system
is always beneficial and
we should always be looking at
those.
Thank you.
Why wouldn't you want people, if
they want to come back into the
education system, why wouldn't you
support that?
No, so I
like to dream about the trifecta.
Oh.
But.
If, say, the legislature doesn't
flip or whatever, how do you go
in and
communicate that child care is
important to those who
might not?
Well, I'll say my
experience.
So as I mentioned, I
worked with Emily for
many years
talking about child care as economic
development. And I would sit in my
board meetings and I would say,
child care is economic development,
child care has economic development
and Dan Fine, who's a
senator from Fond du Lac,
sat on my board and
voted down my budgets and
was the biggest curmudgeon in the
entire world.
But finally, he
was like, OK, I've
had Missy and enough people talk
to me about how child care is
economic development.
He introduced a bill to
change the business tax credit that
WEDC is responsible
for.
And at the hearing,
introducing his amendment
that would enable businesses to
invest in child care,
he said the words, child care as
economic development So that was
my win in that world.
But it takes
the work of gaining the
trust of the legislators,
and especially for the Republican
legislators, speaking their language
around business,
that it is going to help the
economy, that it is an investment
back into the economy and finding
those ways to have
conversations. And you know, I think
a lot of the.
Legislators, although they
didn't experience this raising their
own children, are seeing their
children make decisions not
to have children or having
to make decisions between career
and that they're starting to
understand, like, oh, this is a
real thing, not a problem.
You know, the
departure of people like Robin
Voss is going to help
this conversation.
Robin Vos said to me, well if
families just stop taking trips
to Europe and having cable TV,
they'd be able to afford childcare.
Talk about that conversation another
time. I have not.
Some of that old school thinking
just needs to leave the building,
but I think that you can
continue to
try to create those relationships.
Some of it is that some
folks need to just move on, but by
gaining trust and having people
realize that you are coming
from a place that is meant to grow
Wisconsin and is meant to be
successful for Wisconsin, they can
start to, the
Dan Fines of the world will.
That's a, it's a big
shift in mindset.
Cause you hear all of these
legislators talking about like, oh,
we have declining enrollment in our
school districts. We need to be
talking about how to close more
schools, consolidate more districts.
Like maybe enrollment is
declining because like we're not a
family friendly place to be.
Like it's such a big
shifting mindset.
I don't even know what my question
is.
No, no, no.
Here, I'll give you the example that
I would use.
So we were fortunate enough as
a family, we took a trip to
Stockholm.
And all walking through Stockholm,
I'd go into stores.
And walking in the doorways, there
were two little pieces of metal.
And I'm like, what are those little
pieces metal?
And I finally asked one of the store
owners, and they were like, oh,
that's for strollers.
And I was like, that what
family-friendly looks like.
It is, at the very
littlest level, helping someone get
a stroller into a store.
And you have to have that
shift in mindset.
You have to that.
We are family friendly.
We are pro-education.
And we know that we have not
had that mindset for many years
at this point.
And so having a
leader, having a governor, having a
woman governor.
All these opportunities to
continue and you know of course
Governor Ebers was so dedicated
to education and
but you know he was just in an
impossible situation.
We are not going to be in that
impossible situation going forward.
Whether we have a trifecta or not it
is going to be better.
And so how do we take advantage of
that and You know, my thing is how
do we do it in a really sustainable,
responsible way?
You know you could come in and
burn everything down.
The next team is going to come in,
and you know, we'll just end up in
this zigging and zagging.
How do we get to a place where we
are like, no, we have all agreed
that this is the way we're moving
forward.
Do, is there
any data out there that indicates
how much a family on
average, what percentage
of their income goes to
child care?
You're saying that, do you
have that?
Yeah, I think it's 25%.
I don't know if this one exactly. In
Daly County?
Yeah, 25%.
Yeah, there was just, in fact,
as I was scrolling the New York
Times yesterday, there was an
article where you can look up in
your community how much
child care is for.
And I just know that, you know, what
flashed up for me was $17,800.
So that must be in Baroque.
Yeah, we have a calculator on our
website where you can go ahead and
enter your county and you can see
what portion of child care per month
goes to,
or you can see what the actual cost
of childcare and then what your
income is after that.
And most states are, or most
counties are, end up in the red.
So in the 7%
that's being funded,
you provide 7% or the family
is locked at paying, they don't have
to pay more than 7%.
That's right. But then the state
comes in and pays Heather the rest
of what she needs to survive?
Yes.
The state would pay the family who
has it on their card.
And then they would.
Yes, sorry. Yeah.
Yeah. Heather, get the.
Oh.
Right.
And with, I also have
a statement, I don't know if it's a
question, but with
get kids, sorry, With bridge
payments ending in June.
A survey was just released, I
think by the Wisconsin Child Care
Association, Administrators
Association.
Most programs are gonna have to
significantly increase
their tuition,
and then a lot of programs are faced
with closing, and programs are
steadily closing as they're seeing
this end in sight.
Heather, can you say
what those so everybody can hear
like what that payment is,
that bridge payment is per month?
So it gets your
by child.
So somebody who has a larger center
would get more money and then also
for staff You have to declare full
and part-time staff, and I'm not
sure how they divide That
up, but it started on a more
significantly and then the money has
decreased Governor Evers
that this budget cycle with the last
budget cycle came up with everybody
emptied their pockets I like to say
he got all the money together to
give them to go through until
this last budget
cycle. I get messed up in budget
cycles.
And then by June it was from like
July to June was
the last payments.
Now that's been the significantly
less than we've
gotten previously.
So, what will happen in July when
those payments end for
a typical provider or for you,
Heather? I will raise my rates.
I don't have any parents in here at
the moment, but, and I've already
raised my rates 12%
since the decrease in,
but the average,
it'll be about $200 a month that
I will need per child to make up for
that difference.
So I need to and again I have more
flexibility than explaining
downstairs I own this building so
I have a little bit more leeway
with financially where
things go because I don't have a
significant mortgage so I can
figure things out that way.
But yeah it's going to be and not
that I'm it's just another thing
that we have to figure out and
it's been I
have to say since 2020 there
are a lot of really good things that
have happened for child care I think
because people have realized that
we're significant pressure to
the community and to parents
to work and that kind of thing but
there's been a lot of not
great things like doing without
money you know even
going back to the legislature being
told that he's
telling Lucas.
That I sat through a meeting once
where a legislator said, we just
need to tell these women how to run
their businesses, and then we'll
get this figured out.
So not only are we dealing with,
but all of that significant amount
of stuff when we were trying to make
sure that people understand what we
do is important.
So again, the money that'll
have to get figured out, and that's
the reality that we're living in
right now.
When realistically like
tuition levels if we were actually
paying Child-care providers
what they're worth like tuition
would be so much more so
like right which isn't figuring out
how to close that gap
Yeah, there's like so many different
parts to it Yeah,
like if I could I would give my
kids teachers like all my money
because they deserve it but
Yeah, providers and teachers are
subsidizing their own wages so
that it doesn't, and parent tuition
continues to increase,
so what the phrase is, I think,
like, teachers can't make less and
parents can't make more, and that's
where we're stuck.
And it's a public good that
we all need to acknowledge.
And that's why the state
needs to step in in this moment
and invest in this so
that we can not
expect this untenable system
to work.
And I want to put a
pin in the point that you made.
So Missy's out having conversations
with CEOs about child
care and how they need
to, can you step in?
Can you help? Can you helped us
innovate around child care?
And the
ease with which it's, well it's just
a poorly run business,
and of course because it's run by
women, like all of that is
wrapped in what is
being experienced, which is why I
did the work to sit down and be
like, okay, let me explain the model
to you, you know, first of all you
have these ratios and then they take
away your place where you're making
revenue and they're like, oh, how
could you possibly run that
business? Exactly.
You get really creative at
times.
Yeah, but I think, you know, with
the change that we're going to see
and the payments going away in July,
there are providers who I've
talked to who are just, you know,
they are there.
Go fund these together to get toilet
paper for their, you know,
like it is, they're at their
wits end and they don't have any
kind of flexibility to be able
to endure what's gonna happen
in July.
Do you have an estimate on what's
gonna happen around providers
closing or?
Uh, well, I
have the survey results from WCCAA
and, um,
I think it was about 10
percent. It was a smaller survey, so
maybe of 80.
Maybe I shouldn't be quoting,
because I just read the survey this
morning.
I won't factor in. Yeah, we've
continued to see providers
start to close once.
There was not a continuance
of child care counts in the last
budget and whatever.
So we got the bridge payments, but
because of the significant decrease,
we've seen programs decide that
they've had to close at a pretty
steady rate.
And do you have this like closure,
I was going to look that up, for
even like the last year, how many?
Because if providers are always,
not always, but significantly have
been since the
payments have gone down.
Yeah. Providers have closed.
I don't.
I don't, but I can give you that.
But I think from
WECA we have the statistic
that 25% of
teachers and educators are leaving
early child care on a yearly basis,
so the hole is just getting deeper
every year.
What's your perspective on,
so we have a look into your crystal
balls.
So get kids ready, continuing.
So this was a one year
offer that we're aware of.
What are your thoughts on it
continuing beyond 26,
27? That's the first question.
And then if you could share some
perspective on the 325
per pupil 400 year
deal.
If you could provide some insight
into that, that would be, I mean, I
understand it
to a certain extent in that let's
make sure public schools get
money, however,
as it relates to CPI and keeping
up with inflation and
just, you know, some forward
thinking around that it doesn't
really help us given that everything
else is increasing.
So what are your thoughts on
both of those?
Well, I think on Get Kids Ready,
I haven't heard and
again, you know,
colleagues with Jeff Pertle and
Governor Evers, of course, but I
haven t heard people saying
this is a win and this
is working really well.
It's just, that's not what I'm
hearing. And so I'm
assuming that you all are giving
that feedback.
Back to DCF and
to Governor Evers, who are, I
believe, typically quite responsive,
and you know, that feedback will
carry forward into the next
administration, I'm sure.
So TBD on, you
know whether that's a thing.
On the 400-year veto,
yes, gets funding, but
to me that also feels
like a duct tape and veiling wire.
Solution and you know the creativity
that had to go into that is
much maligned and
you know I think it again goes
back to that conversation of what
do we need to do in order to fully
fund our public schools and
support our public school teachers
and have that
system working and not subject
to the
robbing Peter to pay Paul and
all of those that happens on a
to your basis, like what the systems
are going through with
the constant budgeting and
the constant hanging over your head
of whether child care counts is
going to go away or what is, you
know, because we haven't had
a strategy that
says we're going to we are going to
do this and we're gonna do it
successfully.
I'm looking at other states who,
I mean, our school funding formula,
it's just not a good one
in 2026.
But there are other states out there
who have revisited their school
funding formula.
They've revisited and created
a way, you know, to
fund their K-12 public schools
in a fashion that allows
us to be able to do our best work
for children. Yeah, yep.
Just something to think about.
Yeah, I think Pennsylvania has done
some interesting things around that.
I think, you know, at WEDC
we would look to
who's doing this well, who's doing
an incentive well, or who's do
something well and learn from them.
I think of that when I think about
legalization of marijuana.
If we're going to do that, let's
learn from the other
states and figure out how to do well
and figure out, you take
the good lessons and the bad lessons
and we can do that again and again.
We don't have to invent the wheel
necessarily.
So would you be open to something
like what Vermont did,
implementing a payroll tax to
pay for universal child care?
I think that, and
I had a conversation with Ruth
Schmidt from WIKA about,
I thought it was Virginia, but that
might have been the confusion,
because she said Virginia, and we
went and looked at it and couldn't
find it, so it must have been
Vermont.
The key thing for me for that
is making sure that we have
the system in place to put in
educators, and
just to come out and say, okay,
we're going to have it paid for, but
we still need the educators.
We still need.
That side of the the puzzle fixed.
So you know if you if we could get
to the place where we have providers
coming where you know more
the the what's a right word
to use for
Provide our early educator.
Early educator.
Early educators. If we have the
early educators coming in,
then, and we need
to fix the how we pay for it model,
then that's certainly something that
should be on the table.
And I think a payroll tax makes
sense and it helps to
recognize that this is a public good
that needs to be taken care of.
But I want to make sure that we have
that early childcare educators
piece figured out also.
That's why I don't think we can just
snap our fingers and have universal
child care.
Rebuild the whole English family.
Right, exactly right.
Well put.
As I got my undergraduate
and early childhood education birth
through third grade regular and
special ed and taught in classrooms
birth to four years old
and I absolutely loved it and I
eventually had my own children and
couldn't afford to pay for care and
I was taking care of other babies a
baby who actually had a birthday two
days before my daughter and I would
hold that baby all day while I sent
my baby to a care
provider who I was very fortunate
was amazing, but.
I really appreciate the fact that
we're looking at educators'
well-being and pay because
people who leave this field
don't want to.
They want to be here,
but they also deserve to
not only make, like you said, a
livable wage, but to enjoy things in
life too. They shouldn't have to,
even if it's a trip to Europe, they
should still be able to do that and
do what they love,
not only because it's important for
the economy but it's important for
our young children.
Well, it was so impactful for
me in talking with Ruth that
this is not a recruitment problem.
That there are lots of folks who
want to go into this work and
we just need to make it sustainable
and viable for them.
And it's so interesting,
throughout the course of their
career, they're going to have
children. They're going also
to experience this dual
life.
And I do it since Gray is sitting
here. Gray is
currently in an apprenticeship
program through
DWD that
was free for early educators.
And Gray had already worked for me
for three years.
But now I found that only because I
was digging and had to,
you know, it wasn't like it was laid
on my plate for that.
But I don't know if you want to
speak to what you're learning or
why it's important.
Different than like...
The correspondence courses on that.
Yeah, sure.
So yeah, I started the
apprenticeship program in August and
I've been at our house for five and
a half years now
and I'm in my
second semester and like the first
semester a huge part of it
Was just learning about advocacy
and we sent letters
to representatives and
I found it like Like
I said last time just like really
disheartening
kind of worrying that like a huge
part of our program is learning
about advocacy for our
work and
that that's like a big part of what
we have to do and I feel like a
lot of other college fields you
don't have to you know do
that but
yeah it's been really helpful it's
already been really impactful for my
work and I've been sharing things
with Heather that she's done been
sharing with other employees
Yeah and I'm really grateful for
the apprenticeship program and I
know it's
going to be ending in 2027
or at least the funding for
it.
Because I think it was a grant.
Right.
Right yeah, so that kind of
that sucks, but I got in right at
the perfect time Yeah,
and then I'm also getting or
I'm on the waitlist for the teach
scholarship which would then
potentially pay for like 90%
of finishing my
associate's degree so the
Apprenticeship program gets me to
halfway to my associate degree then
with the teach Scholarship.
I would get the rest
There are other 30 credits
And I'd only have to pay about 5%
instead of 100%
of the funding
for college. And that's
a game changer because there's no
way I could afford to go to college
without those two programs.
And I feel like those programs
are incredibly
beneficial not only to educators,
but providers and most
especially children.
Because they deserve
high quality early education.
So, and like
yeah, like your brain grows 90% in
the first five years of life and we
need to take advantage of that time
and really set
a good strong foundation for
the rest of their lives so they can
reach their full potential and be
successful.
And there's currently a wait list
for the Teach Scholarship.
Just through CCDBG,
federal funds, that we did minister
to them.
Do you know how long the wheel is?
Is there a time frame on the wheel?
I don't.
Have with you.
Yeah, because there's like so many
different programs within the Teach
Scholarship too to apply for, so I'm
sure for the different programs
there's different wait lists.
And that has so far survived
federal cuts.
Yes, although we saw
a decrease in
the last budget.
Well, I'm glad you're able to take
advantage of those programs.
And it's wild to think that you're
being taught how to advocate for the
industry that you are going into,
like a little government affairs
program.
But it's great because I do it
online and so
I don't have to travel anywhere
to do it and then I can also still
work my 40 hours a week and
do that so like it's a lot on my
plate but it's been really
beneficial so
And you get a little practice by
sitting here.
Of course.
I think that the last thing that you
said, Gray, is something that
I even,
in my thinking about the economy and
thinking about how do we make this
work, lose
sight of, which is how
important it is for the kiddos
to have quality.
Experiences from that age and
how that, again, is going to
support us over the long
run. It's going to help support the
public schools and as you
provide education, it will keep
kids out of the criminal justice
system.
There are so many benefits to
being very
cognizant of that first period.
Yes, definitely.
Yeah, and I would say the prenatal
part also. Oh, yeah
I think it's a great program,
it's just too bad that there's not
more of that for
staff.
Yeah, and I think we, in
Wisconsin, we have an incredible
apprenticeship program that
is one of our best kept secrets.
And I don't know what Wannakee
does. I've seen a number of
school districts that are amazing at
helping their kids access
apprenticeship programs for
the youth apprenticeship programs.
We're amazing.
Are you good? Okay.
But one of the challenges that
I've seen is that it often relies on
a champion, like one person
who's a champion for it.
And then that person,
if they move
to a different district or they
have a life event or something, it's
hard to have that continuity.
And I think that's a place where the
apprenticeship program could really
be beefed up to make that more
systematic and not just reliant
on that one champion.
I mean, you have to have a person
creating those relationships and
things like that, but how do you
build a little bit of an
infrastructure around them to help
them?
I had a conversation with
the head of economic development for
Arizona and she said we're
you know we're standing up an
apprenticeship program or we're
starting that it's really important
we're so excited we have a hundred
people in it this year.
The whole state I was like that's
cool we have 16,000.
It's important, especially as
college is getting more expensive
and it's not affordable.
And even when we're talking about
some of our capital referendums
again, how are we
increasing these facilities in our
schools for our culinary arts and
some of the other non-collegiate
pathways that students would take
when it comes out of the
investments.
Yeah, we were able, through a
workforce innovation grant, to
support sock prairies,
investment in ag
apprentice, manufacturing
apprentice, and nursing,
to be able to have different
facilities to support that.
It's pretty great,
but took some time.
A conversation that I
have had, so I, my day
job, I work with
a coalition of labor unions and
one of the biggest concerns that
they have is that child care
doesn't match up with the hours
that folks actually need to work.
Just thoughts about how, how to
incentivize having more child care
providers have like early
morning hours, late night hours,
and how do we actually
build a child care system that works
for the whole economy.
First, we attack.
I know, I think it is
layer upon layer.
But I think that's a place where we
can also really start to engage
the businesses, because that's a
particular need for the
businesses to be able to have their
second and third shift.
There's a child care provider
supported by Aarons
and Company in Brilliant, Wisconsin.
Dan Aaron is the CEO,
and he saw this problem in
his community.
And so.
Aarons started a
childcare facility.
They are, I think
they at least provide second shift.
They don't have enough workforce for
third shift, so they just focus on
second shift, so
innovation there.
But also, they provide
childcare for grandchildren
of their workers.
So if you're working in that factory
and you have grandchildren
that need childcare.
You can have them go to that child
care facility and as a result
he has they have families moving
to Brilliant which is this teeny
little town up north and
attracting you know attracting
workforce so then potentially they
get that third shift going and
can have that but
that's a place I think where you
do have to start engaging the
businesses and I
think there's also places where we
can add some flexibility
you know one of the hindrances that
I understand is there's
a 12-hour restriction
on you can't be at a
child care facility for more than 12
hours, but if you have a 12 hour
shift, then that makes it
very hard to be
able to drop your child off and then
work your whole shift.
So there might be some opportunities
for innovation there.
All those layers.
Does anybody else have any other?
There's all those layers.
I just want to say that that that
that's why you need the North Star.
That's why you need that the saying,
you know, okay, we are all rowing
the boat in this in this direction.
And as governor, you bringing
in the executive
team, the cabinet that would help me
we set those North Stars and say,
Okay, now What can you do
to support that?
Transportation, what can you do to
support this idea that we're
going to be the education state?
You know,
any other, I can't even think of any
other agencies at this point, but
WEDC, what are you going to do?
You know how can you bring your
resources to bear?
Because there's resources across the
state enterprise that can be brought
to help solving this problem.
But you have to have that ability
to kind of lock arms and say this
is the way we're going to go.
And I do hope,
because I do think part of Get Kids
Ready was there wasn't
anybody from child care at the
table.
So I do when some of this comes
around that you do include
providers, especially people who own
and operate their own child
care centers, because, I could have
told them that two 4K
programs was not a
good idea, right, if I'm sitting at
the table.
But a lot of times,
we're not included.
My favorite thing to do
throughout my career is to
bring everyone to the table and then
figure out the path forward.
And you know, I learned very early
that compromise means everybody
doesn't get what they want, but that
means everybody gets something that
they want. And so, you know what
is that process?
But you have to be willing to
understand this is what Joan
needs, this is Chris needs,
this is Heather needs.
Okay, I understand your needs, It's
not a.
Battle. It's a everybody throws
their needs into the middle of the
table and then you start to talk
about how do you make a system that
works.
It's called cooperation.
Thank you so much for coming.
Thank you everybody for the time.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Okay, you're going to get into it
where you want
Okay, yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you, thanks so much.
Yes, pleasure meeting you. We really appreciate
it.
Thank you, thank you so much.
Oh, thank-you.
All right, give me an update,
you can talk to me, yeah, so how do
you feel with the campaign?
A few months in, long way to go.
Yeah, you know, it is, this is the
first time I've run for office, so
I'm excited to learn what
Wisconsinites are really thinking
about, what they're concerned about
with the future. We are at a huge
inflection point for the state,
and it's critical that we make
sure we have the leadership we need
to start really moving the
state forward and creating the
momentum that we need.
So obviously the last poll came out,
most voters in the Democratic side
are still undecided, still figuring
things out.
What's that line for you when you're
trying to talk to people to say,
hold on, be patient.
People aren't tuning in yet.
But also to say it's also urgent to
start getting that name recognition
going.
Well, when I look at the poll and
what we learned from that poll, the
most important thing to me is that
voters are incredibly concerned
about the economy.
And their primary focus
is on finding leadership that can
help build a strong economy.
And that's what my platform is.
That's what I'm presenting with
Unlock Wisconsin, and really
moving the economy forward.
And we want to make things
affordable for folks.
We want housing that's affordable,
child care that's portable.
This is critically important.
And that is what voters are looking
for.
Right now we're at that time where
we've got the Supreme Court election
overlapping with all the
gubernatorial candidates out and
about. Do you see kind of a trend
where you guys are all on the same
page when it comes to Chris Taylor
in the election and people tuning
into both at the same time?
Well, we saw in the poll that, you
know, we still need to really engage
folks on the Supreme Court election,
but I believe that Chris is
doing a fantastic job of getting out
there and talking with folks and
making sure that everyone is paying
attention to that April election.
And, you now, once that's done, then
it will be a full sprint to August.
In terms of that momentum,
do you think maybe people that are
getting involved now or wake up for
that election can keep them engaged
from April to August to
November?
You know, I'm seeing a ton of
engagement around the state.
When I go to Brown County or
Marinette, folks are showing up for
meetings. They want to understand
where the candidates are, who
the candidates, are.
And I'm excited about that
engagement. I think people are
really realizing that elections
matter and our leadership matters.
And so making sure that we have
somebody that keeps the
governor's seat blue in November
is the most important thing we need
to be focused on.
Thanks for your time.
We really appreciate you letting us
come in today.
Yeah, well, thank you so much for
making the...