With just a few short weeks until critical child care funds dry up, Kids Forward is cautiously optimistic about the Republican Leadership and Governor Evers’ bipartisan budget deal that continues some public support for child care in the 2025-27 state budget.
“Affordable and accessible child care is supported by Wisconsinites across party lines,” said Daithi Wolfe, Senior Policy Analyst at Kids Forward, “State investment in care infrastructure is the right thing to do, even in a divided government.”
Today’s agreement includes significant, but not sufficient, wins for Wisconsin’s working families:
- $110M in monthly, per-child payments to child care providers to help them avoid closure and/or increasing tuition, but only in Year 1 of the biennial budget.
- $123M to increase Wisconsin Shares reimbursement rates, making child care more affordable for working families.
- $28.6M for a pilot program to help support expanding capacity across Wisconsin’s child care industry to ensure more families with infants and toddlers can access quality, affordable child care.
Child care is unaffordable and unavailable for too many working families across the state. Child care staff are severely underpaid, and this critical industry is on the verge of collapse unless there is continued economic support. A quarter of child care programs are likely to close if the legislature fails to make significant and sustained investments in child care.
While this agreement does delay the impending crisis, it won’t solve it.
“This deal doesn’t address the long term needs of families and providers, but we look forward to working with legislators and the Governor to ensure sustained investment,” shared Wolfe.
The proposal raises child-to-staff ratios, putting both children and providers at risk. It also drops provider age minimums (allowing 16 year-olds to work in licensed programs), threatening the quality of care.
We know that the people of Wisconsin need access to early care and education. A just released survey shows that 89% of respondents—across political lines and family types—support public investment in child care, including 79% of those without children.
In fact, just a few weeks ago, more than 60 dads and their allies came to the State Capitol to demand bold investment in child care.
“Dads Care for Child Care proved what we already knew: dads, families, and communities across Wisconsin care about giving their kids a great start in life, and that begins with quality child care,” said Wolfe.
