A Republican plan to ease the child care crisis got a hearing. Here is what providers and others had to say
MADISON — Assembly lawmakers on Wednesday debated the fine points of a slate of bills proposed by Republicans to address the state's child care shortage, though many providers say the regulatory changes would create safety problems and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is expected to veto the measures.
While some child care providers welcomed more flexibility for their operations, other advocates testified in opposition to the entire package and asked lawmakers to instead extend funding for Child Care Counts, which funneled federal dollars to providers through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republican lawmakers introduced the measures last week, which would bring regulatory changes to the child care industry, create a loan program for child care center renovations and establish a program to allow families to deduct child care savings from state income taxes.
"It's clear that we have a broken model. We have already put a great amount of money into child care, and centers are still closing. We need to identify the root causes," said Rep. Joy Goeben, R-Hobart, an author of the bills. "My bill package is not going to solve all the problems in child care, and I never presented them that way."
More: New GOP bills hope to alleviate Wisconsin's child care crisis. But how?
Goeben, who owned a child care center that closed 14 years ago, said she developed the bills based on conversations with child care providers in her district.
None of the bills currently have Democratic co-sponsors. Rep. Jill Billings, D-La Crosse, said lawmakers had only one day to sign on to the measures and did not have time over the holiday weekend to speak with the legislature's attorneys, advocates and child care providers about the bills.
While Evers' spokeswoman Britt Cudaback indicated last week that the governor does not support the measures, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, suggested the bills will reach the Assembly floor for a full vote.
"Legislation that could reduce the quality of care for our kids, fails to keep child care center doors open tomorrow, and provides no immediate help to make child care more affordable for working families simply will not cut it," Cudaback said.
Providers largely oppose regulatory changes, support some measures
Most child care advocacy groups, a pediatrics organization and the state AFL-CIO chapter are opposed to several measures that would make regulatory changes, though some providers told lawmakers more flexibility would help them amid workforce challenges.
Those include allowing increases to staff-to-child ratios to match the average teacher-to-student ratio in the local school district and boosting maximum group sizes in group child care centers — a move advocates and Democrats say could lead to more losses in the industry's workforce.
The state Department of Children and Families testified that the proposed changes, especially to ratio age brackets, present "health, safety and quality concerns." The department said the changes would put Wisconsin out of line with national child care accrediting bodies. DCF also raised concerns about low wages for employees, which the bills do not address.
"While our analysis focuses on the health and safety implications, DCF does not believe that these bills will address the workforce and affordability challenges we’ve been hearing about in every corner of the state," the department testified.
More: New Wisconsin Policy Forum report exemplifies the struggles child care centers, parents face
One bill would create a new category of licensed centers — "large family child care centers" — which would allow them to start caring for larger groups of children, depending on the childrens' ages and number of employees. Another would allow 16-year-olds to take on more roles in child care centers.
"I have concerns about 16-year-olds in this situation that is filled with professionals who are educated at what they're doing, how to handle difficult situations, and still are feeling that burnout," Billings said. "I don't think that's our child care crisis answer."
The bill authors say the changes would give providers the option, but not require them, to enact changes like the ratio adjustments. That's something that has the support of Candy Hall, a child care owner and executive director of Child Care Resource and Referral Fox Valley based in Kimberly. Hall said she did "a lot of contemplating" after Goeben visited her to discuss the proposals.
While she supported the new classification, "it will not work for every program" based on building codes, available space or providers' other reasons, Hall said.
Some advocacy groups support other measures, including a bill heard in a separate committee that would create a program to help parents and guardians save for child care costs. Families could put up to $10,000 in the accounts per year that could be deducted from state income taxes — similar to a health care flex spending account.
In a memo, this bill’s authors said creating such a child care reimbursement account could “lower (participants’) state tax liability to make child care more affordable.” Appleton’s Carolyn Desrosiers, a parent of a 2-year-old and 6-year-old, told USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSIN that while this may help some families afford care, it will not be useful given the current child care shortage.
“If they were to address the root issue of low child care teacher wages, which would make child care more available, then the (child care reimbursement account) would be helpful. But if there’s no care to pay for, it doesn’t help,” she said. “Currently, families cannot find a child care spot to pay for.”
A few groups also support establishing a revolving loan program for child care center renovations but oppose a provision that would funnel the majority of loans to providers operating out of their homes. Some of the groups prefer that the $15 million in available funding be allocated through grants, not loans, because providers cannot take on more debt.
According to research compiled by the Greater Fox Valley Child Care Alliance, child care businesses survive on thin profit margins – typically 1% to 2% – while most businesses see profit margins of 10% to 20%.
“We don’t make much money to begin with, I don’t want to go into debt that much further,” Diane Reynolds, owner and operator of licensed family child care Diane’s Daycare in Shell Lake, said in an interview.
Lesa Alston, an early childhood consultant with CCR&R Fox Valley, testified before the committee in support of a bill that would change certified family child care rules. The bill would allow certified family child care providers to care for up to six children under the age of 7 regardless of if they are related to the provider. Currently, these types of providers can only care for three of these young children unrelated to them at a time.
In a previous interview, Alston said this change would make it so that more people would want to become certified, which is a voluntary form of regulation, therefore opening more quality child care slots.
Advocates continue push for Child Care Counts funding
Some child care advocates oppose Republicans' proposals altogether and instead pushed them to extend funding for Child Care Counts.
Evers and Democrats repeatedly called on Republicans to create permanent funding for Child Care Counts during the budget-writing process. The program, which helped keep child care centers open during the pandemic, is set to run out of funding at the end of 2023.
The program has allowed providers to make long-awaited updates to their facilities, increase wages and bonuses, hire additional staff and prevent substantial rate increases for families. Child Care Counts has distributed more than $652 million in federal pandemic relief funds directly to 5,080 Wisconsin child care providers since its inception in 2020 as of September, according to DCF.
"Your decisions are hurting our workforce, harming our children. You are costing our state more money," said Brooke Skidmore, director of The Growing Tree child care center in New Glarus. "The solution already exists. You already know what it is."
DCF testified that continuing to put money toward Child Care Counts "isn't what we want to do for the long-term," but hearing the bills Wednesday is part of considering solutions to the issue.
Billings and committee chair Rep. Patrick Snyder, R-Schofield, said they asked for a bipartisan committee to study child care issues this summer, which was not approved. Snyder said he is looking into ideas to help build the state's child care workforce.
Evers will again try to provide $340 million in funding for Child Care Counts by calling lawmakers into a special session on child care and workforce development in two weeks, though Republicans are expected to gavel in and out, a common practice in response to Evers' special session calls.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Republican bills aimed at Wisconsin child care crisis get a hearing
