State Set to Make History
MADISON, WIS. – Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA) applauds Gov. Tony Evers and legislative leadership for prioritizing bipartisanship that will result in ongoing direct payments to child care programs and a first-time investment of state general purpose revenue (GPR) into child care programs in the 2025-27 state budget.
The Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) voted 12-4 on Tuesday to approve and Gov. Evers is anticipated to sign a budget that includes $110 million to continue direct payments to child care programs from now until June 30, 2026. The historic GPR investment directs the Department of Children and Families to administer a $65 million school readiness program to support 4-year-olds in child care programs.
“We’ve waited decades for the state to move in this direction – and we’re so pleased to see bipartisan movement toward progress,” WECA Executive Director Ruth Schmidt said. “It’s a reflection of sustained momentum of thousands of advocates making the importance of child care investments crystal clear.”
Importantly, the GPR investment provides a starting point for future investments that will benefit child care providers, children, working families, and the state’s economy. This progress is notable, with Wisconsin now joining a vast majority of other states in making state-level investments into the sector. This investment comes at a critical time when Wisconsin was anticipating significant rate increases and child care program closures.
WECA appreciates that Wisconsin’s income-constrained families will benefit from an increase in the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program payment rates. This will provide Shares-eligible families broader choice in purchasing high quality care in their communities at a time when household costs continue to strain family budgets.
Since 2020, the state has spent nearly $870 million in federal funding to support child care to help stabilize the sector and, for the first time in a decade, slow the decline of available care in the state. The one-time $110 million in direct payments to providers represents a stop gap between the end of the Child Care Counts Program and June 30, 2026.
These key bipartisan child care provisions follow record-setting advocacy efforts, which included child care cited as one of the top three issues at JFC’s public hearings on the state budget. Thousands of providers, parents, business leaders, and community officials sent letters, made phone calls, signed petitions, participated in 2025 Child Care Advocacy Day, attended community conversations and invited legislators to visit child care programs.
WECA is proud to have helped push forward the progress made in child care advocacy and policy, particularly in the last six years.
“We’re celebrating this first-time allocation of GPR. Advocates put in the time and the work, as they always do, to tell their stories – and, securing state investment is most definitely significant,” Schmidt said. “With that said, WECA remains committed to continuing the advocacy momentum to ensure this type of investment increases moving forward and becomes expected over the long term as a Wisconsin priority.”
The full state Legislature and Gov. Evers are expected to adopt and sign the 2025-27 state budget later this week.
