>> Former UW Regent Bob Atwell, thanks very much.
>> All right. Thank you. See yo. >> "Child Care Counts". That's
the name of a Covid era state funding program for child care
providers that expires next year. It's also the adage of
advocates that want the state to invest permanently in the
increasing cost of child care in a collaboration with Wisconsin
Public Radio's “America Amplified” project, here and
Now's, Aditi Debnath is reporting on questions voters
are asking this election. This is the second story in that
series. >> Where are your parents while
you're here, Lily at Winter mountain. They're at work.
>> Arthouse Preschool owner Heather Murray explains to her
students why they're observing a day without child care.
>> Now a lot of kids at Wisconsin and across the country
do not have a place to play or to learn, so we're here to talk
about that today. >> Waunakee Village Board member
Robert McPherson joins Murray. >> We created the Mordecai child
Care Providers Assistance >> The program invests $85,000
into the local child care industry.
it helps us at the village be able to help the child care
providers within the village to help pay for provider services.
>> Murray got the idea for Arthouse Preschool more than 18
years ago. elementary school teacher and
then started this center when my youngest was about 14 months
old, wanting quality child care for my own kids.
>> Since the pandemic, she's been advocating for increased
state support for child care. >> The state of Wisconsin
received close to $800 million in Covid relief money that was
to be directed to child care. That is what allowed us to keep
our industry going. >> Ruth Schmidt runs WECA, the
Wisconsin Early Childhood Association. That pandemic
program called "Child Care Counts", the Waunakee Child Care
Providers Assistance Program aims to mirror child care counts
on a local level. >> For me, it does two things.
It's a step in the right direction and an acknowledgment
that this industry needs financial support.
full time, and both of us have careers that are important to
us, and neither of us were really interested or at a point
where we thought it made sense for our family to stop.
>> Amy Kloppenburg has two sons that attend art house. She makes
the 12 mile drive to Waunakee from nearby Madison twice a day
for her kids. It hasn't been easy.
exaggerating. I contacted 35 daycares, both on Madison's east
and west side, and then I finally started reaching out
farther than Madison. >> Finding childcare is
stressful and at times complex for parents like Amy. Is there
child care in your area? If there is, is there availability
in the classroom? If there is, can you afford it?
>> Personally, when I raised tuition, I had two families that
decided it was better if they stayed at home financially. So
we're essentially pricing some families out of childcare.
>> That means that working hard to make sure that you all have
enough toys, enough books, enough teachers.
represents Waunakee in the state assembly. He attends the art
house event with his newborn daughter, Emmie.
>> I put forward legislation to continue the "Child Care Counts"
program at an amount of 350 million, and that's just a drop
in the bucket compared to the five or excuse me, $3 billion
surplus that we have in this state.
Republicans rejected proposals by Joers and Governor Evers to
invest state money into child care. Instead, Assembly
Republicans passed a package to address the profitability of
child care centers. Part of the plan calls for a loan program to
help child care centers to pay for renovations and changing the
minimum age for entry level positions from 18 to 16.
Governor Evers vetoed all but one bill in that package, which
expands a tax credit program for child care expenses. The
political standoff means government support is ending.
>> We've seen the "Child Care Counts" money be greatly reduced
over the years, and we will see it expire next year. So the
money that's being used at a state level is just enough to
keep the doors open. >> Heather Murray says state
funding is actually less than what providers like herself need
to keep centers open. Overwhelmingly, Murray says, she
needs more money to pay her employees a fair wage.
>> We need investments from the state to be able to be able to
maintain the staff we have now and the salaries that they're
getting. investment is a stopgap measure,
not a permanent subsidy. >> We as a village were helping
to stop for a couple of months, we think is so much money that
we're going to have, but we're hoping that the state and
federal resources will come together and continue to provide
child care providers, because this is really something that we
need. >> Surprisingly, the families
getting priced out are not the low income ones.
>> We're losing that middle section right? We still have
supports for low income families, and we still have high
income families that can afford care.
that fall into that middle section.
>> When my child was born, we couldn't find childcare for the
first 6 to 8 months of her life, and it meant that I couldn't go
back to work. >> It shouldn't just be for
people who have a partner that both people work. People should
be able to live and work and have childcare.