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Live from Wisconsin across the Civic Media Radio Network, you are listening to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow.
Sitting in for Pat is Matt Rothschild and Angela Lang.
Good morning, and that
was the voice of Greg Bach, who joins Jane Mattenair on Mattenair on Air after this program, which is a great show, and I hope you'll keep listening to the Civic Media Radio Network for Jane and Greg, as I will be.
The number to call here is 855-752-4842.
That's 855.
75 civic all across the civic media radio network Angela Milwaukee had a tragedy this weekend a fire on Mother's Day that took the lives of five individuals at a apartment complex with 85 units You know I first I saw the headline I didn't read the story and then I was listening to Todd all bomb
the Todd Alba show on the civic media radio network, giving it some of the attention that it deserves.
Sometimes I need to read things twice or hear things twice before it makes an impression, otherwise I'm just skimming through headlines.
And I told Todd the next day when I saw him that he was so right to be talking about this story because it reminded me of the triangle shirt waist.
Fire story back in the early part of the 20th century when so many people in New York City in a high-rise Factory there was a fire there and people were jumping out of windows and dying here We had people in Milwaukee having to jump out of windows a second story windows But still jumping out of windows and someone some mom had to throw her baby out a window to someone down below
And I read about the guy saying, please, I hope I catch this baby.
I mean, this is a terrible story.
What was your reaction to
It was heartbreaking.
particularly struck me because that is a part of a neighborhood I feel like I grew up in.
So I was raised on 32nd in Wisconsin and this was on 27th in Highland so not really far definitely part of the neighborhood I've been past those apartments I immediately once I saw it on the news knew exactly where it was and it was unfortunate but then being able to see more and more
details kind of emerge in how because the building was created I think in like 1968 it wasn't required to have sprinklers and it was tragic all around and even more devastating I think I mean any loss of life is tragic but to know that it was also on Mother's Day and you hear these harrowing accounts and you had you know our mayor said he was on the scene and I'm saying that he was hearing some of the devastating stories of survivors
and rescue and It's tragic all around and the police chief I believe yesterday said that they can't rule out that it was intended Intendably started so we'll see What you know the cause of it?
I think a lot of folks are very curious of what the cause of that fire was And if there is going to be and I say if Because I don't know that there will be if there will be policy changes To prevent this from moving forward, but
I don't think there will be.
I mean it was so powerful listening to the fire chief who was saying this was preventable.
This didn't have to happen.
We have five members of our community who didn't survive because there weren't sprinklers in the apartment building as required in buildings that were built after that law came into being.
No sprinklers in this old building, no requirement for
buildings that our grandfathered in to get sprinklers in.
No state subsidy for sprinklers.
I mean, now we're hearing from some folks, well, it's too expensive for a landlord to put it in.
Well, you know, we got this surplus here at the state.
Maybe we should subsidize, you know, these old buildings, make sure that there's sprinklers in there.
I mean, what is the cost of a human life?
I mean, that was
the
question that the fire chief was asking.
It was the question that Todd Alba was asking on his great show.
And it's the question I think that all of us are wondering, what is the cost?
You're saying the cost of putting in a sprinkler is worth more than the cost of the lives of five human beings in Milwaukee or anywhere in Wisconsin.
And so then we had Speaker Voss yesterday in the Capitol saying the last thing we wanna do is make it even more expensive to own a home.
Rent an apartment.
This is where his this is where his little art went out.
landlords
Suddenly he cares about housing affordability Like now he cares about housing affordability because I feel like there's a lot of people that said, you know, the rent is too dang high And he hasn't done anything about that.
So I find it very peculiar that now he seems to care about the affordability of housing
And it is not lost on us.
Yeah, thanks Greg in the chat.
He is a landlord.
So I think that is important context when thinking about how some of these lawmakers, particularly him, make decisions.
And this is a fact that I learned in college, right?
There was some landlord-tenant thing being debated on the assembly floor, I believe, at the time.
And I was surprised.
There were some Democrats at the time that were like, nope, not for it.
And I was very confused.
And someone in the gallery had to point out that all of those folks were landlords.
And so they were
thinking about their own bottom line, they were thinking about what would be more expensive or inconvenient for them and not their role as lawmakers, but their perspective as landlords.
And I think it's incredibly irresponsible for Robin Voss to say this now.
And it's incredibly disingenuous knowing he does not care about the affordability of housing.
And I'm just gonna throw it out there because people are like, why do you always make it about race?
Because it always matters.
I'm curious about if this happened in a place that wasn't the city of Milwaukee in a predominantly black neighborhood.
If this happened in the suburbs, would people feel the need to invest there?
It's just a hypothetical question I'm throwing out there, but I think it's something that is also worth noting, given how Robin Voss has this disdain for Milwaukee and it is a dog whistle.
lead in our water.
And there is, you know, a few years ago, people were talking about getting, um, replacing the lead laterals in Milwaukee.
And he basically said Milwaukee didn't deserve clean drinking water and that, you know, that's a Milwaukee problem.
Well, you know, we don't care.
And so I think this kind of adds to the narrative of like anti-Milwaukee sentiment, which if you unpack is a racist dog whistle, but I'm very curious and maybe I could be wrong, but it's a hypothetical situation.
be very curious to see if this happened in Shorewood or Whitefish Bay, if there would be a different sense of urgency, if the victims were different.
Great question.
What's it going to take for our elected officials to rectify these unsafe conditions we have in apartment complexes here in Wisconsin?
I mean, you had Vaas wave at the human cost in a callous way.
Here it was.
We want to ensure that, of course, people are safe, and then he quickly adds, but we have to be careful about overreacting to a single or unfortunate incident like this, which occur but are less and less likely over time.
Well, are they less and less likely over time?
This legislature, the Republican-dominated legislature since 2011, has passed one bill after another that was pro-landlord and anti-inspection.
Molly Beck reports for the journal Sentinel today in 2011 lawmakers passed a law that, among other effects, barred the state from enforcing a sprinkler rule for new apartment buildings.
So what is the legislature going to do on this?
They're just going to write it off as what did he call it, an unfortunate incident.
That is so irresponsible.
And we have so much money, a couple billions of dollars.
in surplus and we're not taking care of the safety of people who have to rent their own apartment.
And some of these apartments are not up to code and the number of inspections, the time of inspections has been delayed because of these new laws.
There was one law that was passed by the Republican legislature when I was over the Wisconsin democracy campaigns that said they don't need inspections except every five years now.
And so, you know, the regulatory function of our government, and I know a lot of people say, oh, regulation, bad regulation, really bad all the time.
What about regulations that keep apartment buildings up to code that have sprinklers on there and make sure that the that the smoke alarms work, things like that?
And I would think those would be important.
They should be priorities, you know, and it was actually astounding to me to unpack the details of this and to know that like sprinklers weren't.
always required and you know I just assumed that at some point people would install them as like responsible you know landlords or or owners and
It's it's incredibly irresponsible to like not do your job, right?
Like this is your legislator.
You have to respond and to pick and choose what you're responding to and what folks you want to protect.
And as Greg put in the chat thoughts and prayers that it feels like that was very much what Robin Boss said is sorry thoughts and prayers and I'm not going to have any real tangible solutions or policy.
solutions to this issue the same way we see with so many other things.
He's able to be like, it's not a priority for me.
So thus, you know, thoughts and prayers.
And it boils down to who's got the power in the legislature.
I mean, it's not only as you point out, the Republicans there, but it's a class thing.
You know, landlords, some of the Democrats are landlords too.
And so, you know, it's the it's the owners of property that make the laws.
in Wisconsin and in this country and you know I always told my kids you know the laws are made by the rich for the rich
yeah
and that's and this is just another indication here this is these are laws and regulations made to help landlords not to help tenants yeah and if the situation we're in and we have this tragedy in Milwaukee with five
of our fellow citizens here in Wisconsin who lost their lives because there weren't sprinklers in an 85 unit apartment complex.
That's just outrageous.
And we got to fix that.
And we've got to start attending to the needs of everyone in our state, not just those with wealth and a lot of property, but the vast majority of people who are just trying to make it paycheck to paycheck with rents that are through the roof and some of these
places that people have to rent are not up to code and are just death traps.
This was
death trap.
And there are other ones out there.
And Robin Voskens can say with no factual basis that this is going to be less and less likely over time.
But actually, this is a canary in the coal mine.
And we got to we got to watch four other tragedies like this and make sure they don't happen.
And I hope some of the new Democrats in the legislature will push legislation on this.
We'll make this a priority.
And we'll just keep raising attention to these issues that are not being attended to.
And, you know, Governor Evers has been good on a lot of these issues.
You know, for instance, child care, which we talked about before, and yet in the budget, Republicans are stripping everything out and going down to
back to basics that they call it, and I guarantee you the rewrite of the Republican budget, the rewrite of Evers' budget by the Republicans is not going to include money for even just subsidizing landlords
in sprinklers.
I mean, that would be something that would help landlords, but it would also
keep tenants alive.
I think this is the bigger theme that we've been talking about all week.
And like, no matter what is like, it all comes back to class.
And I mentioned, I grew up, you know, up the street from those apartment buildings.
That is not a rich neighborhood.
The richest part of the neighborhood is Marquette High School, right, on a few blocks away.
But I think, again, understanding that
I lived in an apartment building all my life in some way, shape, or form, even growing up over, you know, around the corner from them.
Wasn't the greatest, you know, I thinking back, I don't know how much up to code that apartment building was, right?
And that neighborhood specifically, there's a lot of renters, there's not a lot of homeowners in at least that particular area.
And it doesn't feel that where there's kind of this class difference between renters and homeowners.
Totally.
Politicians love to talk about homeowners.
We've got to talk more about tenants and we'll do so after the break 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2.
I'm Matt Rothschild with Angela Lang mornings with Patrick
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co-hosting for him all week, and we'll be back again tomorrow.
We hope you'll join our conversation.
855-752-4842.
That's 855-75 Civic.
Earlier in the program, we were talking about an article in the New York Times today, actually a video, audio video op-ed about scholars of fascism who are leaving the United States.
Greg is linking that in the show notes.
So if you wanna find that, just go to the show notes for the program.
Angela and I have been talking about this tragedy in Milwaukee with the fire on Mother's Day that took the lives of five Wisconsinites.
And it was unfortunate, unnecessary, tragic.
There were no sprinklers in the apartment complex.
And Robin Voss is gonna do nothing to mandate sprinklers
in apartment complexes that were grandfathered in saying that they don't need them if they were built at a certain point, not so recently.
And so that gives you a sense as to what his priorities are.
And it raises not only the question of, you know, who's Robin Voss for landlords or tenants, but it raises the question generally.
about what the legislature is doing for anybody who isn't rich.
And there are some Democrats in the legislature who are trying to do something about the cost of housing.
I know Sarah Kieske's introduced a bill about preventing hedge funds from all over the country or all over the world from buying a property in Wisconsin.
This absentee ownership.
is a huge problem.
Everywhere in Wisconsin, especially in cities, the cost of renting is just a ridiculously onerous problem for so many tenants in this state.
I got two kids who are renting apartments here in Dane County, and the cost of apartments is just through the roof.
I mean, it's hard for anyone who's working...
near minimum wage or even near double minimum wage to afford an apartment in Wisconsin.
I mean, it's absorbing 30, 40, 50% of your income just
to
pay the rent.
And what are our legislators really doing about that?
I'm not hearing a lot of talk about making housing more affordable.
Kamala Harris talked about it a little bit in her campaign.
It was the first time I heard housing addressed in a political campaign.
And I don't know how many years.
Because
Right.
I mean, the day to day lives, I mean, Bernie talks about it because he's in touch with people's ordinary lives because he grew up in not luxury.
Let's put it that way.
He grew up knowing what it was like to
to rent an apartment and see his parents having to pay a lot of what they were making just to end the monthly check.
And yet we don't have that sense of awareness on the part of many of our legislators, certainly not on the part of Robin Boss and the Republican majority in there.
And this again is an issue that Democrats should run on.
But as Angela pointed out, there's some Democrats who are landlords and property owners and
You know, want to make sure that their nest is feathered.
I'm willing to bet if you were to take a survey of folks in Wisconsin and say, do you think housing should be affordable?
And do you think that basic standards such as sprinklers should be required in apartment complexes?
I'm willing to bet most Wisconsinites would say yes.
And then you say, well, it's not going to happen because Robin Voss is a landlord and he doesn't care.
And so are a bunch of other people in the legislature.
It seems like such a common sense thing and it doesn't seem in the the landscape of everything we're dealing with it doesn't feel the most political or the most controversial but yet here we are because
everyone has an agenda and in some cases it's good and in some cases it's bad and I don't think that again folks even in Robin Boss's district would agree that this lack of response is actually okay it seems it shouldn't be controversial but
Robin Voss kind of weasels his way to make a Argument to yet again not support people not support workers, especially like low income folks and another excuse to not support Milwaukee when we need it
And it's part of the larger problem of the legislature Like Robin Voss in a gerrymandered legislature
Republican legislature that is still pretty gerrymandered Less so now we got to fix that permanently too
but they don't represent the needs of the people of Wisconsin.
The people of Wisconsin want, you know, so many things, whether it's medical marijuana, which is like 85%, you know, where the last stayed around here that doesn't have medical marijuana, much less recreational marijuana.
And as Angela says,
I bet it's 85, 90% who say, yeah, let's get sprinklers in those apartment complexes.
We don't get that.
We don't get an increase in the minimum wage, which is also very popular that Laura Dresser talked about.
We don't get expansion in Medicaid.
We don't get the kind of spending we need for special needs kids through public education.
And that's an 85%, 90% thing.
We don't get it because of gerrymandering.
We don't get it because money in politics.
We don't get it because the people who
uh are elected and are in power sometimes get divorced from the everyday needs of their constituents and that's why it's important for those of us uh to go to those town halls if they're still having town halls who call up our legislators write our legislators email the legislators and demand that they respond to these urgent needs like sprinklers and apartment complexes
How hard an issue is that?
It shouldn't be a hard issue.
It's unnecessary.
And it's so typical, too.
It's an old, it's an old tactic, and it's a disgusting tactic.
And we got to get past that.
In the next half hour, we're going to speaking with Jen Bailey, who runs Beach Dana Head Start facility.
Here in Wisconsin, we'll talk about the problem of cuts to Head Start, which relate to the cuts to childcare.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Matt Rothschild, co-hosting with Angela Lange, and we'll be right back.
Welcome back.
Good morning to Pat Brightlow.
Pat's on vacation.
I'm Matt Rothschild along with Angela Lange.
We're co-hosting the show for much of this week and we're enjoying doing so.
I hope you are appreciating what we're trying to accomplish here.
Just trying to have conversation about the crucial issues before us both nationally and here in Wisconsin.
The number to call is 855-752-4842.
We're joined now by Jen Bailey, who is the executive director of Reach Dane, which runs early Head Start and Head Start programs in Dane County.
Got to give a full disclosure here.
My wife worked for Jen and Head Start in Dane County for many years at Red Oak Trail in Madison.
Welcome to the program, Jen.
Thank you.
Nice to be here.
Great having you with us.
Just for background.
You know, here in Wisconsin, there are about 300 Head Start facilities serving around 15,000 children.
At least that's what I found on the web.
But Head Start has been in the bullseye of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
What's happened to funding so far, federal funding?
Yeah, I will say it's been a wild ride since January.
So January 28th, which is a day that will be burned in my mind forever, we woke up to find out that funding was frozen to all Head Start programs across the country.
And, you know, it was a scenario as an executive director, you plan, you have all the strategies.
I did not think it was possible that funding that was allocated to us and awarded by Congress with the Notice of Award could be frozen overnight.
And it was.
So in Rich Dane's case, that week was actually a payroll week.
So we ended up having to use a line of credit to be able to pay our staff.
And then the following week had to dip into our reserve to pay mortgages, rent,
food and milk for the kids.
And to kind of put salt in the wound, we found out later that the interest that we had to pay on the line of credit is not an allowable expense with our federal funds.
So we actually have to use other funding that we're lucky to have to be able to pay that.
And some
heads
are, I'm sorry, Jen, sorry to interrupt.
Some, I'm sure there were some head start facilities that didn't have the reserves that you had.
And then, you know, how were they making payroll?
Correct.
So there were Head Start programs, including one here in Wisconsin that actually had to shut down because they did not have reserve funding to be able to operate during the funding freeze.
So, you know, when Head Start's not open, our families rely on us for childcare.
You know, I think some people don't realize that the majority of families that are enrolled in Head Start are working families.
And these are folks that work at UW Hospital, that work in housekeeping at the hotel, that work in our local restaurants.
So our economy doesn't work if they aren't able to go to work.
There really is a big ripple effect that happens when child care is not operating.
Or they have to do some makeshift provisions for child care with a friend or a relative and that sometimes is difficult and not optimal.
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah, it really has big consequences for our parents and then for our staff as well.
You know, our staff are your friends, family, neighbors, their teachers, their social workers, their bus drivers, and they rely on, as anyone would, you know, being paid for work that they've done.
So it really creates a lot of fear and uncertainty when you don't know.
I feel like I can't trust anymore.
So when we draw down money from the payment management system, is it going to come through?
Is it going to come through in time?
We have some directors that have had to email.
literally called defend the spend at doge.gov to justify the money that they're drawing down from that system.
And at Head Start, we are one of the most highly regulated programs on earth.
We do everything by the book, by the rules.
So we're paying for things like.
staff salaries and food for the kids.
There's, you know, nothing that that needs any more review or questioning.
And unfortunately, this has become reality for a lot of programs.
I'm
sorry to jump in again, Jen.
Elon Musk is trying to take that food right out of the mouth of these kids.
They're talking about the Trump administration is talking about zeroing out head start in the next budget.
Is that still on the chopping block?
We don't know yet what the budget's going to look like for Head Start.
So we were hearing about a month ago, there was information that was leaked to the press that Head Start was going to be eliminated outright, that we would not be in the budget.
And we did a really, really big advocacy push that I think was successful.
because we did learn just a week ago that Head Start is a line item in the skinny budget as it's known.
Now there's no dollars attached to that, so we don't know at what level Head Start will be funded.
And of course, our big concern is that I don't think the overall strategy has changed.
I think it's still the goal to eliminate Head Start.
I think the approach might just be different.
So slow walking grants, holding back funding, giving additional scrutiny to programs and reviews.
We are very worried that
Head Start programs that are getting their annual funding award right now are only getting half of their money.
And that's not normal.
If we were under a continuing resolution, it would be.
You know, that's typical, but we're not.
We have a budget in place.
So there's no reason why programs aren't getting their full funding and it doesn't seem like a good sign.
You know, there's no reason for that to be
This sounds like a really big question, but it's just like, how are you all navigating this political moment?
Like, because it sounds like you're able to, you know, I think y'all maybe have realized that this may have been on the chopping block for a while under this, you know, administration.
So you're able to kind of, you know,
continue to keep the lights on.
But how are you all thinking about this long term?
As you mentioned, there might be different tactics to try and cut head start.
And are there ways that folks can be supportive or advocate?
Yeah, absolutely.
That's a great question.
One of the I think most frustrating things in this whole process is there has been virtually no direct communication from the administration to us.
So we're relying on
back channels were relying on what's happening to you and your program.
What are you hearing?
What are you seeing?
Because we're not getting any direct communication.
And that's gotten even worse since about half of the regional offices that really administer Head Start grants, including ours, which was Region 5, which did cover Wisconsin, were abruptly closed.
So the staff literally showed up for work and were told that they had an hour to clean out their desks and no longer had employment.
And these are the people that we rely on who process our annual grant applications, any special applications around enrollment, facilities, any concerns that might be happening and are really important support for programs with new directors.
And basically, they've cut the staff that administer the grants in half.
And the analogy that I've been using is it would be like Telling Reach Dane, which has 14 sites.
Now you're going to have 28 sites to oversee, and you have no additional resources or people to administer.
It's just not possible.
There's no way that it's possible for them to really administer the grants without those staff.
And you don't cut administration for a grant that you're planning to keep, in my opinion.
So that's another sign that makes us very concerned about the future of Head Start.
So I think for advocacy, for folks to be reaching out really on an ongoing basis to your Congress people, to your senators, I'm having every morning what I call coffee with representatives.
I pick up the phone.
call, you know, leave my voicemail.
Some of them have not called me back yet, but I'm going to keep calling, you know, just that continued outreach because the volume does matter.
They do track that.
They do pay attention to that.
So I think the more that people are hearing about Head Start and why it's so important in our communities really makes a difference.
And the number to call a Capitol Hill number to reach your legislature, 202-225.
3121, 202, of course, is the DC number.
So the other numbers remember 225, 3121.
That's the main operator at Capitol Hill and asked to speak to your legislator and they'll put you right through.
That's how it works.
It's really important to do that advocacy.
Jen Bailey is the executive director of Reach Dane.
And Jen, Angela Lang's an executive director herself of Block.
I've been an executive director myself.
I can't imagine how it is, just figuring out how to budget, but on a human level, how do you reassure your employees and how do you ensure, reassure your parents who are bringing their kids to you that the doors will be
open?
It's definitely a very challenging space to sit in.
And we want to be honest.
We want to be transparent.
So I'm having to say to our staff, I don't know what the fall is going to look like.
I don't know what funding is going to be there for Head Start.
And obviously don't want folks to panic that right now we have funding.
Right now we have funding in place.
So definitely that reassurance.
But the timing
with the federal budget usually coming into effect in October would be disastrous for us.
School has started, right?
we're enrolling families for the fall.
We're proceeding as if we're going to have our same funding level and we have absolutely no idea if that's going to be the case.
So that it just creates a whole other layer of challenge because the timing of that budget is pretty much the worst possible that could be for Head Start.
And so are you facing employees who are saying, I can't work under these uncertain circumstances.
I got to look for something else.
And what's that going to do to your ability to run your reach gain, your Head Start program?
Yeah, HR is definitely getting hard questions.
You know, we're hiring staff for next program year.
And teachers are saying, can I count on this?
you know, is your program going to be around?
And some of our current staff have said to me, you know, do I need to be updating my resume?
You know, it's that uncertainty is really, really hard for folks.
And we all depend on our paycheck.
We have families, we have mortgages to pay, we have bills.
And uncertainty is it really is at a toxic level right now of folks just not knowing, you know, is my job going to be here in six months?
And that's toxicity brought to you by Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
Elon Musk, who took a power saw to all sorts of domestic programs that are serving some of the neediest people in our country.
And as far as Head Start goes, that means needy children, 15,000 of them in the state of Wisconsin, whose healthcare and early childhood instruction is on the chopping block right now.
for the employees who work at the 300 Head Start facilities in Wisconsin.
Everything is up in the air because of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
I mean, this is, you know, we can read the headlines and not really see at the ground level what it's happening until we talk to someone like Jen Bailey, who's the executive director of Reach Dane.
But this is what's happening all across the country and all across Wisconsin.
Jen is going to stay with us right after this break.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
I'm co-hosting with Angela Lange.
And we'll talk about the child care cuts here in Wisconsin too when we come right back.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,
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You're listening to the Civic Media Radio Network, the number to call or text, 855-752-4842.
That's 855-75 Civic.
And still with us, and we're grateful that she is, is Jen Bailey, who's Executive Director of Reach Dane, which runs Early Head Start and Head Start programs in Dane County.
Thanks for staying over the break, Jen.
I wanted to ask you about the cuts in the governor's budget that joint finance did last week, cutting $480 million out of childcare counts and how that affects you.
Because it seems to me like maybe this is a double whammy for you.
Yeah, very much so.
The loss of childcare counts is huge for our organization and our staff.
So since the pandemic, Reach Jane has been participating in that program and our staff get a $200 a month stipend through childcare counts funding.
So without that, I mean, our employees are taking a pay hit, you know, and as much as we have been messaging that we don't know if this is permanent, this is likely just temporary,
please don't rent an apartment counting on having this $200 a month, but life happens.
We're a nonprofit, folks who work in nonprofit and childcare, we're not making the big salaries.
So the loss of $200 a month is groceries, it's a car payment, it's rent, it really is huge.
And we're very concerned about our childcare partners because
data from WECA and DCF shows that up to 25% of childcare programs could close.
They literally have been using this funding to keep the lights on, to be able to pay staff, basic operating expenses.
So it's a mystery to me why we don't understand that we need to support childcare if we want our economy to work.
And that, I think,
will be a mystery to me for a long time because if we're gonna have folks in the workforce, we need places for our little ones to be.
So it's so important that we're supporting childcare and programs to be able to pay staff, something close to a living wage to be able to work in that field.
It really is a huge loss.
of what the worst case scenario could look like for you all, whether it's Head Start specifically or then also some of these other policies that kind of intersect, paint the worst case scenario of what that means for kids, families, and Wisconsinites.
Yeah, I think the worst case scenario is what I've called federal funding apocalypse.
So if we have no federal funding for Head Start in the fall,
For Reach Dane, that's 80% of our revenue is from those federal grant programs.
So it's absolutely devastating what the impact would be.
And for most Head Start programs, it's 100% of their revenue.
we're fortunate to have 20% from other sources, but that's closures.
That's laying off staff, that's shutting down sites, that's not being able to provide programming that our kids and families really need.
So that's the worst case scenario.
The other piece that I worry about is what I call the death by a thousand cuts scenario, where we slowly whittle away at the integrity of the Head Start program.
And I'm not sure which is the worst scenario to be honest with you, but those are the two that we're really planning around at this point.
And there is no one other funding source that could replace Head Start for us.
I think we would really have to look at, is there philanthropy, private foundations, other funding sources?
Because many of the other programs that we would have been able to look to potentially in the state or other places for funding, they're being cut as well.
So we're losing Medicaid funding, we're losing SNAP funding, we're losing all of this critical wraparound support resources for families are all being impacted at the same time.
And the result of that is it's devastating.
There's no other word for it.
Devastating to employees, devastating to children, devastating to the economy as you pointed out, Jen Bailey.
I want to urge our listeners to contact their state legislators, to have them restore the child care counts funds, $480 million, and call legislators in DC 202-225-3121.
We can't let either the federal funding apocalypse happen, as Jen Bailey describes it, or the death by a thousand cuts.
Neither of those is acceptable.
It is not acceptable in the greatest economy in the world to be acing out care for children.
In Wisconsin, that means 15,000 children, 15,000 poor children are going to suffer because of these cuts, both at the state level by the Republicans on the joint.
uh finance committee it's not joint it's republican dominated finance committee and by robin voss and donald trump we can't let this continue so i want to urge everyone to contact legislators statewide and federal and let's try to save these crucial programs jen bailey is the executive director of reach dane thanks so much for being on the warnings with pat crite low show jen
thanks for having
me
And Angela and I will be right back after the break.
The number to call to join us, 855-752-4842.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Tritlow.
I'm Matt Rothschild.
We'll catch you after the break.
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