from Portage. I'm Steven Potter for "Here& Now".
>> If you have children and child care programs, expect
tuition to go up and availability to go down.
That's because temporary Covid era funding to help
providers keep costs down and retain staff is set to
expire at the end of June. The child care bridge
payments of $110 million took up after more robust
federal stabilization funding ended results from
a new report and survey from the Wisconsin Early
Childhood Association show that three quarters of
providers across the state said they'll need to raise
tuition, and a quarter of providers said they're
likely to close. We're joined now by Paula Drew,
director of early childhood education policy and
research for the association, and thanks
very much for being here. >> Thanks for having me.
>> So with costs up elsewhere for food and fuel,
how are working families who depend on childcare
likely to respond to these tuition hikes?
>> I think families around the state right now are
sitting around tables like this, asking themselves,
does it make sense for one of us to keep working? If
it makes sense, should we work part time instead of
sending our child to a licensed child care program
down the street? Perhaps we should entertain a
grandparent, a neighbor, because the cost of care is
just becoming unaffordable to the point where those
who have the means to access it will, and those
that don't simply will be sort of priced out of the
market. >> Because what kind of
tuition increases could we be talking about in general?
>> So 75% of child care providers at answer this
question, and they said, we will have to raise our
tuition rates at least $25 per week. And so that's,
you know, between 2000 and $3000 per year.
>> It's already pretty expensive.
>> It's already, I think, at the point where some
families can no longer afford it.
>> So how meaningful was the original "Child Care
Counts" program that used federal emergency Covid
funds to stabilize the industry?
>> The original "Child Care Counts" program was very
meaningful, and child care providers have been on
record over and over and over, stating, this is the
first time I've ever been able to start a retirement
account. For our early educators, we are actually
accessing health insurance for the very first time.
Our early educators are earning a wage in which
they only have to work one job. It also kept tuition
rates affordable for parents.
>> How much of Wisconsin providers gotten from both
programs? >> Hundreds of millions of
dollars. >> And so going from
hundreds of millions of dollars over the past six
years to nothing, it's easy to see why your survey
results show that they will have to make some of these
very difficult choices. >> That's right. For years
on end, childcare providers have been depending on this
funding to meet the gap between what parents can
pay and what it actually costs to provide high
quality childcare. And without those funds, most
people within the field are asking these same, very
hard questions that parents are should we close? Should
we let go of some staff? Should we lessen the hours
of operations that we have, stop providing food, stop
providing bussing, you know, cutting costs, right? Both
parents and providers are are trying to figure out
how they can make the math work.
is my understanding is that it's already difficult, but
how stunning is it that a quarter of providers might
have to close their operations?
>> It's very dramatic. And I think when we dig into
the numbers and we think about 25% of providers now,
25% of group providers, that's a really significant
amount of child care seats available in the state.
Right? So family child care providers can serve up to
eight children at a time, but group programs can
serve hundreds of children. So we're thinking about,
you know, when you just think 25%, it's not just
like across the board in terms of how many seats we
have. And I think that's going to be really stark.
And I also would estimate that that that number is
likely going to be larger than it was when the
research was done. >> Is there any prospect
that the state would replicate this funding?
>> I would love to see this program be codified into
law. I think we have seen examples from all over the
country states, red, blue, purple states making
significant investments in the childcare sector and
seeing really big returns on that investment.
Anything's possible when you prioritize it. And yes,
we would love to see this program continue it. It had
all the components that I think are needed to hold
together. This market. >> Is, for some
policymakers, does that kind of funding smack of an
entitlement? >> It can and I think it
it's because the childcare sector itself is is made up
of for profit, nonprofit family child care providers
operating out of their homes, you know, large
group programs. It's hard to sort of wrap your mind
around it versus like a K-12 system. You need a
teaching license, you need a certain amount of
education to meet the teaching license. That
doesn't mean that that's not also required in early
care and education, but it's not what you think
about because of the the fabric of these providers
in the state, you know, look different. But I would
argue a, you know, a wage and career ladder for early
care and education based on experience. And their own
education is the same. That is in K-12 schools, right?
In which is public is publicly funded. We see
that as a public good. What's happening over here
is the same exact thing, but it's entirely funded