Local Childcare owner rallies for funding before traveling to Madison
EAU CLAIRE—A local childcare center closed its doors Monday to participate in the fourth annual 'Day Without Child Care' to highlight the funding needs of centers across Wisconsin and the country.
Amid concerns over the consequences of the loss of Childcare Counts funding, Julia Bennker of Ms. Julia's Schoolia organized a local rally and press conference before heading out to Madison to participate in Tuesday's larger rally at the state capitol.
'[The center has] been licensed for just over a year,' Bennker said. 'It started as a play group when I was in Colorado seven years ago.'
Bennker said said that American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding helped her with all of her start-up costs.
'That program isn't around anymore,' she said. 'I started really lucky. I got involved in child care advocacy in a meaningful way in October. Now that I own a business, it is very clear to me what role I can play in advocacy work.'
While the 'Day Without Child Care' is four years old, this year's comes less than a week after the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee voted to remove Gov. Tony Ever's proposed funding for the Child Care Counts program from the state budget. This removes about $480 million, though those at the rally were still hopeful there was time to change this.
This proposal was meant to supplement the loss of federal funding for the Child Care Counts program. The funding is set to expire at the end of June, with the last payments to centers coming in July.
According to a report released in March by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, a quarter of childcare businesses in Wisconsin are at risk of closure without an extension of the Childcare Counts funding. Closures in rural areas are currently estimated to be around 35 percent.
Attending the rally and press conference at Bennker's center were Senator Jeff Smith (D), Representative Jodi Emerson (D), Representative Christian Phelps (D), Chris Hambuch-Boyle of the Wisconsin Public Education Network, and Eau Claire City Council members Nate Otto and Jessica Schoen.
'We, as a society, need to treat childcare with the same respect we treat any education at all,' Smith said. 'Ninety percent of brain development occurs between birth and six-years-old. Why would we not treat that period of time in a person's life as valuable as we do the rest of their educational process to prepare them for life? And yet the average pay for someone doing that work is $13 an hour.'
Smith emphasized that the Child Care Counts program is not enough, but that losing it will have detrimental effects on families in terms of access and cost.
Emerson expressed similar sentiments.
'Childcare workers are the workforce of the workforce,' she said. 'Think about all the people that you work with who have kids at home. How many of them would not be able to show up at the office or [would need to] work virtually without these childcare providers.'
Emerson mentioned that 60 percent of her daughter's take-home pay goes to providing childcare for just one child.
'Every place in the workforce is looking for workers right now and so this is what we can do,' Emerson said. 'We know that the childcare workers, the educators are drastically underpaid, but we can't keep on putting that on the backs of young families. Look at what young families are going through right now. Housing costs are skyrocketing. College costs are skyrocketing. They're paying off their student loans and then they're paying 60 percent of their weekly wages to a childcare provider.'
In addition to several planning to drive out to Madison today, several who attended the rally were also aiming to speak at Monday night's City Council meeting where City Council members Otto and Schoen would be introducing a resolution to support the governor's $480 million funding for early childhood education.
'We want to send a message to the legislature that our community supports investment in early childhood education,' Otto said.
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