25-03-2025
Gov. Evers discusses childcare funding in CF stop
CHIPPEWA FALLS — Deanne Patten owns the Firehouse Friends childcare center in Stanley, where she is licensed to have up to 104 children. When she raised rates two summers ago, Patten said she had 21 children almost immediately drop out, because the families couldn't afford it anymore.
Patten told Gov. Tony Evers about the challenges facing rural childcare centers like her business during a sit-down conversation Monday in Chippewa Falls. Patten said she was 'scared and nervous' about what could happen without permanent Child Care Counts state aid.
'I appreciate his time and energy he's putting into the childcare field, and hopefully he'll be able to make some changes,' Patten said.
The governor's 2025-27 budget proposal would invest more than $500 million to lower child care costs, support the industry, invest in employer-sponsored child care, and make the successful Child Care Counts Program permanent, a press release from his office reads. The proposal 'makes meaningful investments in Wisconsin's child care industry to help lower the cost of childcare for working families, ensure child care providers can recruit and retain dedicated workers, and make child care more accessible by filling available slots and preventing further child care closures,' the statement reads.
Evers noted there are fewer childcare centers today than pre-pandemic.
'The state has to step up and do something financially,' Evers said. 'If we don't, the industry itself might dissipate. The thought of thousands of children not having access to childcare — (their parents) just won't go to work.'
Evers, a Democrat, is optimistic that the Republican-controlled state Assembly and Senate will work on childcare funding with him this session.
'I feel good. Is it going to be easy? No,' Evers said. 'If we don't, our economy will absolutely struggle. It's not just important for our kids; it's important for our economy.'
Jeff Pertl, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, joined Evers in the roundtable discussion with childcare center providers.
'It's a difficult business to run, and it's not going to make you rich,' he said.
Pertl noted that parents with two children in childcare are likely spending 70% of their earnings between housing and childcare.
'You need a system that supports work,' Pertl said.
State Sen. Jeff Smith, D-town of Brunswick, said he has visited numerous struggling childcare centers, including one in Menomonie earlier in the day. He noted that workers are not 'babysitters.'
'No one has called their staff anything but educators,' Smith said.
