Support Extending Childcare Counts in 2024 Because We Need Affordable Childcare

 We desperately need affordable child care in Wisconsin. During the pandemic federal and state funds made childcare a little more affordable, but the federal program will disappear next year if Gov. Evers’s initiative to extend Childcare Counts is not passed. According to a recent Post-Crescent article, “

Child care is already unaffordable for most Wisconsin families. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers child care affordable if it takes 7% or less of a household's income, all children included. Brooke Skidmore, owner and director of New Glarus' The Growing Tree Child Care Center and WECAN co-founder, said that many families devote 20% to 40% of their household income for one child alone.

Childcare Counts has allowed many centers to remain open and even to pay their workers a little more. The program began as a program to help childcare centers to remain open during the pandemic. The program was extended in Wisconsin during 2023, and it is scheduled to end at the end of this year unless its funding is extended. Gov. Evers has called a special session of the legislature to consider extending the funding. He has proposed $340 million as a step toward making Childcare Counts permanent in Wisconsin. Democratic legislators in Madison are doing their best to make sure that Gov. Evers's proposal is passed, but they need your help. So, call your legislators in Madison and tell them that you support the effort to extend Childcare Counts in 2024.

In a previous post, I said that we Democrats needed to recover our focus on redistributive policies, and childcare is a good place to start.  Childcare is unaffordable everywhere in the United States including in Wisconsin. Moreover, licensed childcare centers are closing because they cannot charge enough to make a profit on their business, and childcare workers are underpaid because the centers cannot afford to pay them more. Our employers need workers, but people cannot afford to take jobs if they cannot provide for the care of their children. Moreover, good childcare programs can provide the early childhood education that is crucial to a child’s educational development. If we want to make our system work for all of our people, we have to provide subsidized childcare.

• The cost of childcare keeps many of Wisconsin's women in poverty. If you are a feminist, you must support the extension of Childcare Counts.

• The cost of childcare keeps many non-white families in poverty. If you are against racism, you must support the extension of Childcare Counts.

• If you want to see many of Wisconsin's families of all races pull themselves up from poverty, you must support the extension of Childcare Counts.

Now is the time to call your state legislators in Madison and tell them that you support the effort to extend Childcare Counts in 2024.