Public funding needed for childcare
It costs more for families to have an infant in a daycare center than to pay tuition to attend UW-Eau Claire.
According to the national advocacy group, Child Care Award of America, the annual cost for infant care in a daycare center is $9,464 in Taylor County, or about 12.5% of the median family income. By comparison, tuition and fees at UW-Eau Claire for the 2023-2024 school year total $9,276.
Access to safe, reliable and affordable child care is a major barrier to full employment, community growth and the long-term viability of rural communities across the state. Parents are being forced to leave the workforce to care for children and are choosing to have smaller families because they cannot afford childcare costs.
Wisconsin must rethink the way infant and child care is provided from the top down and provide for full funding of childcare programs through the state’s existing public school system. The districts could choose to run their own programs or contract with existing local care providers that met or exceeded benchmark standards. Funding for this could come through additional state aids paid for through the existing sales tax system.
Under such a model, every child would be guaranteed a spot in a certified daycare center and parents wouldn’t have to face the choice of making a mortgage payment or paying for childcare that month. Every community in Wisconsin is part of a school system and schools already provide early childhood programs to students who qualify for them.
According to a study by the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy, childcare costs are currently unaffordable for the majority of full-time working parents. The study found that 63% of parents would have a hard time paying for market-price full-time care. For lowincome parents, that percentage balloons to 95 percent. The analysis is based on the federal affordability benchmark of 7% of family income, set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is far below the double-digit percentages of household income seen in this area.
The broken economics of childcare in America forces people out of the workforce in order to raise their children. This in turn lowers their household earning potential and leads to a greater likelihood of families being caught in generational cycles of poverty and the societal costs that brings. According to the Center for American Progress, parents who choose to leave the workforce risk losing three to four times their salary in lifetime earnings for every year they miss being in the workforce.
On a broader economic sense, reducing out of pocket spending on infant and child care means more money in the pockets of young families to buy homes, cars, or to spend on other things. All of which would further bolster the economy and contribute to increased sales tax revenue at the state level.
It is time to rethink how childcare is provided in Wisconsin and invest in publicly funded childcare for all families.
