Wisconsin Republicans chose not to act on child care funding. Now, providers and parents are paying the price.
Guest column from Jillynn Niemeier, a child care provider in State Sen. Howard Marklein's district in Green County.
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
Federal child care bridge funding ends this month, and Wisconsin’s families are about to feel the impact. While child care providers across the state scrambled to find answers, Senator Howard Marklein and the Republican-controlled legislature had a chance to act, and chose not to.
That choice has consequences.
As a child care provider in Green County, I can tell you exactly what comes next. Centers like mine face three options, none of them good. We can pass the costs on to families by raising rates, which is what I will have to do. We can absorb the loss and hope we survive, most won’t. Or we can close our doors entirely and send families searching for care that, in many communities, simply doesn’t exist.
Green County is already a child care desert. We have more children who need care than we have slots to put them in. Infant spots are especially scarce. Families who lose their current provider won’t find a backup. They’ll face an impossible choice: pay more, drop out of the workforce, or leave the community altogether.
When a parent leaves the workforce to care for a child because no affordable option exists, a local business loses an employee. When families spend more on child care, they spend less at local restaurants, shops, and services. When a child care center closes, that’s a small business leaving the community, permanently.
Senator Marklein represents a rural district that depends on working families. He knows that employers in our communities are already struggling to find workers. He knows the cost of living has risen across the board. And he knows that child care is not a luxury, it is the infrastructure that makes everything else work.
The federal government provided a temporary lifeline. It ended. Senator Marklein had the opportunity to replace it with a Wisconsin solution. He didn’t take it.
I will be raising my rates to cover what I’m losing at the end of this month. For some families in my care, that will be the end. I wish Senator Marklein had to look them in the eye and explain why Wisconsin couldn’t find the will to act.
From the archives:
Jillynn Niemeier is the founder of Blue Door Daycare, which opened in August of 2020 after her family lost their childcare and were not able to find an option that fit their family’s needs.
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