CHIPPEWA VALLEY, Wis. (WCFW) – Childcare providers in the Chippewa Valley and across the state are still calling for increased funding beyond the bridge payments program.

After declaring 2025 as the “Year of the Kid,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said that he would not sign a new biennial budget that did not include continued direct investments for child care providers across the state. His original budget proposal included $480 million in child care investments through the Child Care Counts program.

Following negotiations with the State Legislature, the final budget included just $360 million for child care providers. For this year, $110 million was available through the Child Care Bridge Payments Program.

In July, Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed organized a rally with Chippewa Valley child care providers at Phoenix Park in Eau Claire. Providers at the rally said the reduced funding would lead to closures, in turn leading to higher demand on an already heavily strained industry.

Julia Bennker, a child care provider at Ms. Julia’s Schoolia and an organizer with both Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed and GrassRoots Organizing Western Wisconsin, was one of the speakers at that July rally. Months later, she’s still warning of the negative effects that inadequate child care funding could have both on the industry and the overall workforce if parents can’t afford child care services.

“There’s other families that are just really torn of like, if I send my kid to child care, like the money that I’m making pays for the child care and that’s about it,” she said. “So those conversations are already happening for people of what they’ll do, like what choices it’ll come down to when there’s less care available.”

In addition to asking for more state funding just to stay operational, child care providers are also fighting for higher wages. While the price of child care for families keeps increasing, the cost of operating the facilities is increasing as well.

“I mean just your electrical bill is outrageous, you know your heating bill is outrageous,” said Nicole Saastad, Director at The Learning Tree Childcare Center. “Just, you know the materials that are used, paper towels, toilet paper, simple stuff like that. Groceries, our grocery bill is ridiculous. Granted, you know we do get some state funding for that through the food program, but it just doesn’t cover all those costs.”

Child care services also go beyond simply having a place for parents to send their kids while they work. Federal Head Start programs serve low-income families who can’t afford typical child care prices. According to a WPR report, a number of the programs in Wisconsin could close if the federal government shutdown continues.

Thanh Bui-Duquette, the Head Start Director at Western Dairyland, says their program was lucky to have received its funding earlier this year. If other programs outside the Chippewa Valley close, however, both the kids they care for and the families they help would lose access to a wide range of services.

“So it’s really supporting the whole child, including their individual needs but also what the families need,” she said. “How do we connect families to housing? How do we connect families to the medical doctor, and the dental resources, and mental health providers, whatever the needs are. And so those are the important things to really lift families out of poverty and so they can be successful once they leave head start as they move onto kindergarten, but also beyond.”

Childcare providers are calling on residents to support legislation introduced earlier this year that would increase available funding through the Child Care Counts Program, which will expire in June.

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