What a vote for a Republican legislator means for the childcare crisis

When Gov. Tony Evers and legislative Democrats pushed for a real investment to keep childcare affordable for working families, Republicans proposed larger class sizes, younger childcare workers, and a tax credit worth around $50 per month.

Wisconsin legislators, now in the eighth month of a paid vacation, are spending their October afternoons knocking on constituents’ doors, seeking November votes. In some cases, the door may go unanswered because overworked child care providers are tying little shoes, reading storybooks, and wondering how much longer they can stay in business with a legislature indifferent to a statewide crisis.

Before majority Republicans ended the Legislature’s 2024 session in mid-March, they sparred repeatedly with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers over ways to handle a multi-billion dollar budget surplus. Evers’ ideas included a middle class tax cut and a permanent state investment to help childcare providers keep parents’ rate affordable and pay workers a living wage. 

Republicans responded with tax plans geared toward the highest-income filers, a childcare tax credit averaging around $50 per month, a revolving loan fund, and deregulation that would have raised the teacher-child ratio and allowed more teenagers to be left alone to supervise a room full of children.

When the GOP childcare ideas were first introduced, more than 600 providers took up 17 single-spaced pages to sign a petition blasting the GOP plans.

“The proposed items will actually decrease the childcare workforce, decrease quality, and price-out parents from having access to childcare,” read the petition. “The proposed policy changes are in complete opposition to best practices and unequivocal research in early childhood education and development.”

By the time the session ended, the only childcare measure that made it to Evers’ desk was the tax credit, which the Legislative Fiscal Bureau forecast would benefit around 111,000 filers with an average savings of $656 on 2024 state income taxes—a benefit that won’t be seen until taxes are filed early next year.

Evers signed the bill but called it inadequate to meet the pressing needs of parents, providers, and their employees.

“We need a long-term solution to our state’s looming child care crisis—including direct support for providers—and I will work with anyone from either side of the aisle who’s ready to work together to get this done,” Evers said.

As part of federal pandemic relief, direct support has been coming through a state program called Child Care Counts. The aid — $20 million per month originally and later reduced to $10 million — allowed childcare centers to keep their doors open and pay their workers without having to hike parents’ fees, especially needed at a time when essential workers put themselves in harm’s way to keep the economy providing basic services. 

With the federal money running out, Evers proposed using $300 million of the multi-billion dollar surplus to replenish Child Care Counts for the current state budget period. But in a 2:30 a.m. vote, the Republicans on the budget writing Joint Finance Committee zeroed out Evers’ effort to help providers, caregivers, and parents—choosing instead to pursue looser safety rules, loans, and tax breaks.