Damakant Jayshi
Over objections from licensed child care providers, a Marathon County committee on Thursday passed a resolution that aims to cut child care support and also weaken oversight of small in-home child care providers by reducing regulations.
The resolution, approved by the Extension, Education, and Economic Development Committee, not only seeks to prohibit using tax levies to support child care centers through subsidies but also blocks the use of ARPA funds for the purpose. ARPA funds have been provided by the federal government to lessen the impact of the COVID-19 on communities, schools and business.
The workforce in Wisconsin and Marathon County has continued to face challenges, some of which are tied to an ongoing lack of affordable child care. According to a September 2023 article, 27% of employees surveyed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year said that “the need to be home and care for children or other family members has made the return to work difficult or impossible.”
“Childcare is a barrier to employment for Wisconsin families, as its cost and availability often dictate the labor force participation of parents,” said a report about Marathon County’s 2023 workforce profile. “Some impacted parents refrain from entering the workforce, while others are reduced in their availability to work.”
The report goes on to say that while housing is more affordable for Marathon County residents than in some other parts of the state, child care is more expensive. Residents not only face the the challenges of the cost of care, they also have to contend with the challenges of availability of care. According to the YoungStar provider database, “Marathon County has 64 childcare providers for a potential capacity of 2,579 children.”
Resolution draws on controversial think tank report
The resolution was introduced by Supervisor David Baker. It relies on a controversial report by a Badger Institute visiting fellow Angela Rachidi, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank based in Washington, D.C. The report, “Off Track: An Assessment of Wisconsin’s Early Care and Learning System for Young Children,” was shared in its entirety in the committee’s meeting packet.
Rachidi’s paper suggests that an overemphasis on quality regulation has driven some childcare providers out of the market, resulting in less overall parental choice and higher costs without measurable improvements in outcomes.
But the National Education Policy Center has come out strongly against the report, citing its “significant methodological flaws and omission of important literature.”
Rachidi blames “over regulation and excessive government interference” for the decline in child care providers, and recommends loosening them to increase the number of family childcare providers.
The NEC says due to the flaws in the report, those recommendations should be treated with extreme caution, if not avoided altogether.
Curiously, the AEI fellow finds the requirement that providers must verify their education level as a problem, terming it “another layer of administrative burden.” Additionally, Rachidi identified these requirements as a problem, blaming it for the decline of family child care slots: “the number of books, specific time requirements for free play and parental communication requirements.”
Among the conclusion the report reaches is that “rigid government programs and oversight cannot provide families the flexibility and help that they need when they need it.”
Supervisor Thomas Rosenberg blasted the paper, terming it “really a hit on the child care providers and their education.” It talks about “burdensome regulations” but does not describe what those are, the supervisor said.
“The reason I picked on the article in there is because the conclusion is already drawn before the research is done,” Rosenberg said. “It’s not academically sound and that’s why I wouldn’t use it and that’s why I discount it.”
He also criticized the recommendation for more providers with less oversight.
“It isn’t a matter of warehousing kids and see how many you can stuff in or how young you can get people to do that work,” Rosenberg said. “It’s about kids’ growing up, interacting, learning…This whole resolution is so flawed to me.”
Licensed child care providers oppose deregulation
Some licensed child care centers oppose lowering oversight standards, saying it would impact quality care, thus putting children in such care at risk.
“We would not support reducing regulation of child care support as suggested by Supervisor Baker’s resolution,” said Kelly Borchardt, executive director of Childcaring, Inc. during public comments at the EEED Committee meeting on Thursday. “Child care certification standards and licensing regulations protect the health and safety of our youngest, most vulnerable citizens here in Marathon County.”
Borchardt, who made similar remarks last month, said child care providers should be held to the highest of standards and they “cannot assure health and safety without regulation and monitoring.” She added it would be “nearly impossible to maintain high standards of health and safety” as suggested by Baker without providing guidance through regulations.
She also reminded the committee about the futility of the resolution by pointing out that all the child care regulations are set by the state of Wisconsin, “so the pilot project at the county level as suggested in the resolution would face significant barriers.”
With the GOP-led Wisconsin legislature discussing Gov. Tony Evers’ proposal of continuing the pandemic-era support to child care providers and workforce support as well as bills from members of their own party that seek to create a loan program for providers and lower the age of child care providers, the resolution’s ultimate fate – even if approved by the county board – is uncertain. If the county’s policies are contrary to state statutes, it would enter an uncharted territory – legally and financially.
Meanwhile, the pandemic-era program that the governor wants to continue beyond January 2024 is the Child Care Counts program that was created to stabilize and sustain the early care and education industry
Like Borchardt, Supervisor Rosenberg severely criticized the resolution, calling it “flawed.”
He said it was a state issue and they needed to wait to see how the Wisconsin legislature and the governor dealt with finding for child care. “We might be a month or two ahead of ourselves here.”
The Dist. 21 supervisor said Marathon County is apparently at the bottom when it comes to child care and “with this kind of resolution” the county will remain at the bottom.
However, Supervisor Baker defended the resolution, saying he was comfortable with it even though he admitted that it would not solve the child care issue. “I also would be the first to say that the child care issue is not the government’s responsibility,” said Baker. “I think it’s a parent’s responsibility.”
The Dist. 23 supervisor referred to remarks from the last meeting where a supervisor said that we should not take into account the documents “because it was from an organization that believed in family responsibility, limited government and various other virtues that I strongly believe in.”
He added there was a fundamental difference of opinion over “whether the government is responsible for raising your children and providing for them or whether parents are responsible for raising their children (and) providing for them.”
Baker said he was open to someone else coming up with some other recommendations because he was not going to do it. “So we can vote on it and accept it or someone else can take a lead and write something else.”
He repeated it was not the government’s responsibility to take care of young children.
Debate over ARPA dollars for child care
Supervisor John Robinson said he was concerned with the message that the resolution was sending, saying the child care crisis is a national crisis.
“It is not a crisis in states with more regulations and those with less regulations,” he said.
The resolution fails to recognize the challenges faced by employers in attracting people to work for them, said Robinson, who chairs the Human Resource, Finance & Property Committee that referred the child care matter to the EEED Committee.
“I also disagree with the provision that ARPA dollars cannot be used for child care,” Robinson said, adding it would be a county policy decision that is not necessarily consistent with regulations. He pointed out that many people left the workforce during the pandemic and did not return because of the costs of the child care. “Therefore, it’s pandemic-related and you could use ARPA dollars to address that issue.” He added they were talking about the child care issue in the context of employer “and what is our responsibilities to our employees?”
However, Supervisors Crystal Bushman and Gayle Marshall opposed using ARPA dollars for child care.
Bushman repeated Baker’s remarks that it is not a role for the government to involve itself in child care funding. She added Marathon County does not have to mimic other counties that are doing so, and said she was yet to hear any plan on child care funding after the ARPA money is used.
Supervisor Marshall said she preferred not using ARPA funds for an ongoing need but use it for one-time programs so as to not create a “future cliff,” because programs with ARPA money might need to be “funded through regular budget once ARPA is done. So I would not be in favor of using ARPA.”
Report says child care in Wisconsin is ‘broken’
A report from Forward Analytics that Supervisor Ann Lemmer referred to during the meeting on Thursday says child care in the state is “broken.”
The report, ‘Priced Out: The Steep Cost of Childcare in Wisconsin,’ shows childcare costs could be as high as 36% of family income – if they find quality care in the first place.
One striking stat in the report: “Childcare for two young children costs more than $25,000 per year, more than the $22,000 price tag for tuition at UW-Madison.”
The steep cost, however, is not a result of high pay for workers, the report states. In fact, the number of workers in child care is declining over the years. “In 2021, Wisconsin had 15,210 such workers, a drop of more than 26% from 2010.”
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families also admits the child care system is “broken,” pointing out the child care sector has been operating on razor-thin margins. “Families cannot afford the true cost of delivering high-quality child care, and child care providers do not have the revenue to cover their expenses and retain their workforce. Simply put, the child care market has long been broken.”
