Childcare Providers Respond to Evers' Childcare Budget Fail
On Thursday October 9, Governor Tony Evers delivered a radio address highlighting how his “bipartisan, pro-kid” budget lowers childcare costs. In Wisconsin, “bi-partisan” and “pro-kid” are mutually exclusive terms, because the Republican party is anti-kid. They oppose funding education, post-partum care, childcare, or youth counseling, and behavioral healthcare. They illegally obstruct efforts to preserve Wisconsin’s natural splendor for future generations to enjoy, not to mention basic necessities like breathable air and drinkable water. If you aren’t white and/or financially stable, Republicans continuously fight to increase the risk that your kids will be incarcerated and tortured in Wisconsin’s youth prisons.
We understand how, under divided government, with a party of fascist, anti-kid, anti-future boomers, it is sometimes necessary to make begrudging compromises. It is, however, never necessary to celebrate these “bipartisan deals” and misrepresent them.
A Response from the frontlines
Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN) is a grassroots movement with about 2000 members throughout the state including child care owners, professionals, parents, small business owners, and community members. WECAN has been on the frontlines organizing around childcare funding in Wisconsin. Back in the budget season they even organized a strike that forced Gov. Evers to commit to including funding in the 2025-27 biannual budget.
We remembered their excellent response to the budget and reached out to them when we saw the press release accompanying Evers’ radio address. They described the release as “actually the most honest one thus far as far as where the money is coming from.” Early education and childcare funding are needlessly arcane. Between federal grants, budget lines, subsidies to providers, financial assistance to parents, and other revenue and expense streams, it is not hard for slippery politicians like Tony Evers to tell half a story and make themselves, and the callous Republicans they collaborate with, look like childcare champions.
Brooke Legler and Corrine Hendrickson from WECAN do their best to break down this complexity. This paragraph from Legler’s budget response article helps clarify:
“On the surface, as you read the claims about historic investments in child care and K-12 schools, you might think the budget really solved some big problems. Take Evers’ statement celebrating “Over $330 million to support Wisconsin’s child care industry and help lower child care costs for working families, a third of which is in direct payments to providers.” That means only $110 million is to continue the direct investment to all 4,700 eligible regulated child care programs. The original amount for this program was $480 million. Child care is receiving less than 25% of the requested amount. You might have surmised from Evers’ victorious statement that parents will see a decrease in tuition costs with the new budget. However, the opposite is going to be occurring, and tuition increases will start in August. The $110 million will cause child care rates to increase next month because the new state investment is less than a third of what Child Care Counts, funded through the American Rescue Plan Act, originally provided.”
WECAN will be participating in a public forum hosted by Senators Larson and Carpenter on Oct. 29 in Greendale. The forum is about SB322, a stand-alone bill that would provide the $480 million for childcare that Evers initially requested in the budget. Hendrickson will also be on a panel about the Danish Universal Child Care Model in Madison on Tuesday, October 28.
Hendrickson wrote a response to Evers’ release for us. She had to close her business following the budget, reducing the already too hard-to-find childcare options for working parents in New Glarus, where she lives. Here is her response to Evers’ release, section by section.
EVERS’ RELEASE:
“Wisconsin Shares families will see an increase in their subsidy amount beginning this month, thanks to the governor’s investment of over $123 million in the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program in his bipartisan, pro-kid 2025-27 Biennial Budget.”
HENDRICKSON:
“While this does get WI Shares subsidy into compliance with the federal 75% requirement for affordability, the maximum reimbursement rate is set at the latest market survey which was from 2024, these prices are likely lower than what parents are currently paying and the reimbursement rate is "locked" in to that rate now through the next budget ending July 2027, so much like in 2023 when payment rates were closer to the requirement, by the end of the budget cycle it had dropped to 41%. Furthermore, the amount of tuition varies widely by program within a county and the maximum is based on the "average price." So, for example, when I had my family child care program the parents were paying me well over half of my tuition as I was higher than the county average. Also, only 11% (12,672 out of 112,292) of children eligible for WI Shares under the age of 5 receive the subsidy according to the factsheet from First Five Years Fund, so while this will help reduce co-pay for many families, it doesn't begin to solve the problem. The fact sheet also shows that since 2023 there are nearly 500 fewer family child care programs. 2023 is when the monthly funding was cut in half.”
EVERS’ PRESS RELEASE:
“The Child Care Bridge Payments Program is similar to the successful Child Care Counts Program, which was launched by Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration in 2020 and helped more than 5,700 child care providers keep their doors open, ensured the employment of more than 75,000 child care professionals, and allowed providers to continue care for more than 430,000 kids.”
HENDRICKSON:
“The 110 million is 100% American Rescue Plan interest money earned from the federal payments. That is the "bridge" program. The Governor's proposed budget was to restore the funding to those 2023 levels ($480 million) for the next two years. While this would have been a down payment to solving the child care crisis, it isn't even keeping up with the inflation that has incurred since 2023. Instead, child care programs are receiving about 20% less than they were under the previous program. The Child Care Counts program ended this summer and the Child Care Bridge ends in June of 2026 with absolutely no replacement revenue; creating a bridge to nowhere. Child Care programs increased their tuition significantly, reduced teacher wages, or closed. The department did work quickly so no months went without a payment to participating programs.
“The money for the pilot program for infants and toddlers REQUIRES group centers to increase the ratio of toddlers to 1 adult for every 7 children to receive the small bonus. Accredited programs and 4 and 5 star Youngstar programs will likely not participate, or if they do, they will lose the quality "bonus" they receive per child on subsidy between the ages of 6 weeks and 12 as they will lose their 4 or 5 star rating due to the ratio increase and decrease in quality, therefore, losing their original bonus and leaving only this pilot one. Family child care is NOT eligible. I have asked the department and elected representatives what data they are collecting to determine if the pilot is successful and the response has been the budget didn't specify any specifics and the pilot framework is still being worked out. WECAN has requested to the department and the governor's office that teacher turnover, burn out, children expulsions, behavior incidents, parent complaints, and parent withdrawals all be measured. WECAN has not had a response to this request.
“The budget also allows 16 and 17 year olds to be counted as an assistant teacher/adult and the classroom can be doubled in number of children. Wisconsin has work-release and apprenticeships for high schoolers so 16 and 17 year olds could be in infant, toddler, and preschool rooms, not just in before and after school as most people assume.”
Terrible policy, stupid politics
By leaving out these details, and calling 2025 the “Year of the Kid” Evers makes it sound like the budget increased support for childcare when in fact, there is a net reduction. With childcare providers closing up shop, increasing class sizes, hiring underage assistants, childcare in Wisconsin is going to be more expensive, harder to find, and lower quality.
Republicans undoubtedly deserve the blame for the childcare crisis. They immediately junked Evers’ modest and inadequate proposal. Rather than holding them accountable, Evers is celebrating the scraps, and that gives Republicans undue credit. Giving Republicans credit when all they did was interfere with vital necessities a little less is not only dishonest, it’s also politically stupid. This foolishness is how centrist Democrats will undermine the opportunity for a Democratic trifecta in 2026.
The 2025-27 budget is the first time Wisconsin’s Democrats had any leverage in the legislature since the 2010 Republican gerrymander functionally paused democracy in our state. As Milwaukee Beagle described at the time, real Democrats like Kelda Roys and Chris Larson in the Senate, and the Socialist Caucus in the Assembly tried to use that leverage to wrench concessions from the Republicans. Centrist collaborators, at the behest of Tony Evers and under the leadership of Diane Hesselbein, quickly squandered that opportunity by making a deal. Then Evers quickly signed the trash budget. Now he’s trying to pretty up that trash with radio addresses.
The motivation for giving Republicans this boon is likely self-serving. Evers surely doesn’t want his trash budgets to be such a liability for Missy Hughes, Sara Rodriguez, and other pro-business Democrats in the Democratic Primary next year. Real Democrats and working families in Wisconsin need to take an important lesson from this story:
Centrist Democrats lose. Even when they win, they fail.
