14-05-2025
To strike or not is a fraught decision for child care providers
Pinwheels posted at Tree Top child care center in Ashland represent the families on the waiting list for the program. (Photo courtesy of Theresa Fredericks)
Theresa Fredericks grew up in the world of child care.
Her mother founded a child care center in Ashland 52 years ago, when Fredericks was just 5 months old. Fredericks started her career in early education as a teacher there, then took over management and ownership of the program, Tree Top Child Development Center and Preschool.
Fredericks has been proud of the center's reputation in the community. Tree Top currently is licensed for 33 children at a time. With schedules staggered for some children, there are a total of 39 currently enrolled.
The waiting list is nearly twice that size: 72 children. This week Fredericks put up one pinwheel for each waiting list occupant on the law in front of the center, along with some signs. 'Child care wanted,' one sign said. 'Quality child care should be a right' said another. 'Not a luxury,' said a third.
On Tuesday Fredericks was 300 miles away, at the state Capitol in Madison. Tree Top was closed, and Fredericks says it will be closed again on Wednesday and the rest of this week.
It was a tough decision, she said — but one she and her staff felt was necessary to make a point to Wisconsin lawmakers.
'Without state investment the parents can't afford to pay rising tuition and staff can't afford to stay at low wages,' Fredericks told the Wisconsin Examiner. 'With investment, we will see a rise in teachers going into the field, we will see an increase in available programs.'
That's why she and her staff decided to join the statewide strike called by child care providers.
The strike is a response to action May 8 by the Republican majority on the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee to strip $480 million from Tony Evers' proposed budget. The money would provide child care centers with an ongoing monthly stipend, continuing support first provided through federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.
Child care providers have credited the money for enabling them to increase the wages of child care teachers while avoiding increases in the fees that parents pay.
'I know that there are many people who think that because we care for very young children that we don't count as teachers,' said Tree Top teacher Betsy Westlund at a combination press conference and rally on the Capitol steps Tuesday. 'But the work we do is highly skilled and deeply critical to our society, the economy, and our communities.'
She described a common suggestion that child care providers hear when they talk about funding shortfalls: increase tuition and expand enrollment.
'Never mind the tuition is already so high that so few can afford it, and never mind how difficult it is to find teachers willing to work for low wages with no benefits,' Westlund said.
'No one considers supporting the quality of child care by supporting skilled teachers because they assume anyone will do,' she added. 'And that hurts. Man, does that hurt — because I know how much I have to put in to become educated in early childhood.'
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'We are not just babysitting — we are laying the foundation for lifelong learning,' said Amber Haas, a fellow Tree Top teacher.
The organizers of the strike are calling it 'State Without Child Care.' They're doing it 'so that our elected representatives, especially on the Joint Finance Committee, can actually have an idea of what is going to happen this summer,' said Corrine Hendrickson, co-founder of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN) and the operator of a family child care center in New Glarus.
At the Assembly's floor session Tuesday afternoon, child care providers sat in the overhead gallery. On the floor, Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) introduced some by name, adding that they 'are here in the Capitol to advocate for $480 million in the budget for living wages for teachers in early childhood education.'
While some providers are going all in with the strike, many say they cannot — but they are equally concerned about the issue.
Angela Norvold has grown her child care program in Hudson from a family day care serving eight children to two centers, each licensed for 43 children. One is for younger kids and the other for older children, including 4-year-old kindergarten.
'We thought hard and as a team,' about closing for the strike, Norvold said in an interview. She and the center's administrators decided to send a letter to parents asking for their input. 'They agreed that we should stay open, and my fear was that if we closed we would lose those people for good,' she said.
There's a child care shortage in Hudson, Norvold said. At the same time, she added, there are several providers in the area to choose from, but many have rooms that aren't in use because they cannot find teachers.
'I don't know that [closing] would be making a statement where we are,' Norvold said. At the same time, though, 'we did have some parents volunteer to keep their children home so that we could come [to Madison] today and tomorrow.'
Norvold said that her centers were once more affordable than those in Minnesota, drawing families who moved across the border to make their home.
'They didn't just come for lower prices, they came for quality care, educated staff that wanted to stay, and a community that values raising children well,' she said in a brief speech at the rally.
The funding providers received during the pandemic 'didn't just help families, it helped providers,' Norvold said. 'It helped us retain and educate staff, it helped us keep costs down without sacrificing quality. It helped us build futures.'
If the support doesn't continue, 'we're looking at yet another tuition increase — at least $30 per child per week,' Norvold said. 'That will push our infant care to a level that is not sustainable for most working families. It is not sustainable for us either.'
Families of children enrolled at Tree Top in Ashland have gotten behind the center's decision to join the child care strike .
'Our families support us,' Fredericks said. 'They know that we have done everything. We're contacting our legislators, they're contacting our legislators —over and over again, telling them how important it is.'
Tony Singler is the father of three children who have gone through Tree Top's program, from the age of 3 months though 4-year-old kindergarten. His youngest child is now nearing graduation from the 4-K program.
'Everything that Theresa does there is just more in-depth and more one-on-one,' Singler said in a telephone interview Tuesday. For his kids, he said, the center has been an ideal place to help their children through their first years.
'There's a lot of research and support that the early years are very important to the children,' Singler said. 'Our pediatrician supports that, and it's a choice we make to give our children the best chance they have.'
Singler is a certified public accountant; his wife is a nurse. 'We're not teachers,' he said. 'We don't know how to teach kids at that young age.'
Now they are juggling schedules and turning to friends for help while hoping their child can return to Tree Top soon.
'It's tough,' said Singler, but he says he understands the position that Fredericks and the center's employees are in.
'It's been a very good center,' he said. 'And if they don't have the funding, and they lose the teachers because the teachers have to go somewhere else, and they have to cut the enrollment and people get cut — then you don't have the opportunity to put your child into the center like that, give them the best chance forward in their early development.'
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