GUEST COLUMN: After year of Republican inaction and indifference, Wisconsinites take action for a “Day Without Child Care”
Wisconsin leads the nation in registered events for today's "Day Without Child Care." Guest column from Corrine Hendrickson, the co-founder of WECAN (Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed).
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.
This guest column is by Corrine Hendrickson, the co-founder of WECAN (Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed) and the owner and operator of Corrine’s Little Explorers Family Child Care in New Glarus, Wis.
Too many families already go too many days without child care, costing Wisconsin’s economy billions of dollars. On Monday, May 13, child care programs will take action for Child Care Changemakers Community Action National Day Without Child Care to raise awareness of the critical issue that is child care.
Closures, late openings, all-day conferences, community meetings, rallies, walks, and organizing to contact and visit state, local and federal representatives will be happening across the nation to bring acute awareness to how child care impacts everyone in our community.
Child Care professionals, parents, employers, and community members are gathering at events across the nation to learn, share stories, and advocate for investment. Because our American culture emphasizes personal responsibility, fortitude, and independence, we often don’t stop to think that it doesn’t have to be this way, that this is a uniquely American problem.
But this is why we are coming together. We want to create a world where all of our teachers who care for and educate our children, from infancy and up, have living and thriving wages as the foundation to build a truly equitable, racially just, affordable child care system. This will ensure every family needing care can find care that suits their individual needs and preferences for a nurturing, caring environment for our children to thrive in and grow into tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, innovators, and workers.
Join us Monday, May 13 by coming to an event and Saturday, May 18, WECAN is also holding a statewide rally at the Capitol in Madison from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. All are welcome!
You can also contact your representatives and tell them you support investments in child care. Find yours here.
Wisconsin, once again, leads the nation in registered events for “A Day Without Child Care.” You might be wondering why.
It is because we have a strong sense of community and pride ourselves on our education system — and the vast majority of people do, indeed, include child care as the start of an education. It is because, we, as child care professionals and members of WECAN, have had countless conversations with everyone we know about the impact the lack of care has on their lives.
And in Wisconsin, our state Republican elected representatives have ignored their constituents. That’s even after hearing from countless individuals in person at hearings, in their offices, at a wide range of businesses, and via phone calls and emails by the thousands. They refused to listen and invest in child care, refuse to even consider anything besides the same tired path — cut taxes and deregulate, for “business growth.”
Republican members of the Joint Finance Committee voted last year to remove Child Care Counts from the budget in the middle of the night. It was a party-line vote. WECAN and others responded with a rally at the Capitol. It didn’t move them. Democrats consistently attempted to add Child Care Counts as an amendment to the budget and as a bill, but Republicans repeatedly voted against funding child care.
Those same members have bragged that all of “our” priorities were invested in. Who is “our?” Because it wasn’t Wisconsinites' priorities.
Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.
Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.
Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!
Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
 | A guest post by
|