Last October, Gov. Tony Evers appointed $170 million to fund the state's Child Care Counts program. However, the Office of Children's Mental Health (OCMH) says local child care is nearing a crisis. During an OCMH annual briefing, presenters explained that Wisconsin is one of the hardest-hit states regarding child care.
According to the annual report, Wisconsin is at risk of one-third third of child care centers closing and half of child educators contemplating leaving the field. Nearly 90% of centers are considering raising fees.
Emilie Amundson is the secretary at the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Amundson spoke about the future of child care and how its current state is impacting families and child educators nationwide. Amundson says the recent instability in the child care industry is a result of a "fiscal cliff" caused by state funding during the pandemic.
"As all of the costs started going up out in local economies we were able to kind of keep the landscape steady," she says. "With the lapse of that federal funding and the fiscal cliff coming, we've had to reduce the amount of money that is going out to child care centers."
Amundson says there's been an increase in child care center openings in the Milwaukee area, "but that doesn't necessarily mean it's affordable, and that doesn't necessarily mean that child care providers can find a qualified workforce in order to keep their programs fully staffed."
"I'm incredibly worried about the future of child care in the state of Wisconsin," she says.
Child care workers earn about $13 per hour, says Amundson, which is a "critical issue."
"If we can't find a reason to make folks want to do this work then we're going to have a true collapse of the workforce within child care."
