Milwaukee County child care providers are facing a crisis as they prepare to lose state funding at the end of June. Without the support, about one in five providers predict they’ll have to close, while 39% will have to raise tuition and another 44% will have longer waitlists.

Staffing Challenges

Daniel Balderas, who owns two child care centers, has been struggling to find and retain staff. He has lost some great teachers to schools or franchises that offer higher pay, which he can’t afford to match. As a result, he covers shifts, and employees sometimes work between his two child care centers when they are short-staffed.

The number of children a child care center can legally serve is limited by the number of staff working at that business, even if a facility has the physical space and materials to accommodate more. Child care stabilization funding made it easier for providers like Balderas to offer more competitive benefits to retain staff.

Funding Concerns

The Wisconsin Early Childcare Association is watching states like New Mexico, Louisiana, and Alaska that are finding new ways to fund child care on a long-term scale, but Wisconsin is falling behind. The state is also paying more toward child care subsidies than it ever has in the last 24 months, but the subsidy payments may not keep up with rising tuition.

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, who represents District 6 on Milwaukee’s North Side, introduced a bill last year to allocate $220 million in child care stabilization payments for 2025-26 and 2026-27 using federal Child Care Development Funds and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants. However, the bill died due to lack of public hearings.

Original reporting: Wisconsin Watch — read the source article.