Child care providers say new Wisconsin budget doesn’t go far enough

MADISON, Wis. (WMDX) –
The new state budget spends over $360 million to stabilize Wisconsin’s child care system, addressing a key demand for Evers from budget negotiations with Republican lawmakers.

The state funding comes as federal funding goes away. The Child Care Counts program, established under the pandemic as a relief to the child care industry, has sent out its last payments.

But providers say the new state budget falls short. At a rally on Friday, outside the state Capitol, organized by the Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed, Wisconsin Public Education Network, Main Street Alliance, and partners, advocates described how fragile the industry remains for them.

“This week I experienced one of the most difficult moments since opening. My entire staff has resigned,” says Ashley Blackett, owner of Tiny Diny Academy in Durand, Wisconsin.

“For six months I’ve been trying to hire new teachers, but every qualified candidate needed a starting wage of at least $17 per hour, a rate I simply cannot offer without additional funding.”

Advocates say the industry is being squeezed on three sides: child care is too expensive for families, too costly to run and pays too little to retain staff.

The new two-year state budget directs money multiple ways: to parents, to providers and to systemic fixes.

Evers declared 2025 “The Year of the Kid,” and said he wouldn’t sign a budget that lacked child care funding. The budget also increases special education reimbursements—though not as much as advocates wanted.

According to a Wisconsin Policy Forum Report, last year voters approved a record number of school district referendums, raising local taxes to make up for education costs.

Corrine Hendrickson, who runs Corrine’s Little Explorers in New Glarus, Wisconsin, said that kind of pressure could backfire—especially given how the budget is being sold by the “education governor.”

“As soon as the schools start raising property taxes, the community no longer trusts the people they thought they trusted in. It’s not the politicians because they don’t trust the politicians the way it is,” Hendrickson said.

The demonstrators marched through the state capitol and delivered a letter to the governor’s office, asking him to call the state legislature into a special session for more funding.