{"id":5508,"date":"2023-09-10T05:03:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T05:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5508"},"modified":"2023-09-10T21:03:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T21:03:10","slug":"wisconsin-democrats-want-money-not-deregulation-in-child-care-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5508","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Democrats Want Money, Not Deregulation in Child Care Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-democrats-want-money-not-deregulation-in-child-care-industry\/tcsquare\/2023\/09\/10\/<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
by Benjamin Yount<\/h5>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers in Madison want more money, not fewer rules, for child care providers in the state.<\/p>\n

A group of Democrats on the Assembly\u2019s Committee on Children and Families said deregulation is not the answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs federal funding dries up for the successful Child Care Counts program, child care providers across the state will be facing the choice of raising rates or closing their facilities. We need a comprehensive solution, including continuing Child Care Counts in order to maintain and improve the child care infrastructure in our state,\u201d the Democrats said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

The group includes Rep. Jill Billings, D-La Crosse, Rep. Robyn Vining, D-Wauwatosa, Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton, and Rep. Darrin Madison, D-Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

Instead, they want $356 million to replace the coronavirus subsidy child care providers in Wisconsin received for the past two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding child care is an investment,\u201d the Democrats said. \u201cInstead of providing any funding and resources for our hardworking childcare providers, the proposed \u2018solutions\u2019 simply rely on cutting regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg, told The Center Square last week when the deregulation plans were introduced, that giving child care providers more flexibility will help get more kids into daycare.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcessive regulation of child care is contributing to the affordability issue, but many in the child care industry have signaled opposition to any regulatory reforms that would help to bring down the cost for families,\u201d Stroebel said.<\/p>\n

He also said it would be a bad bet for Wisconsin to simply replace the federal child care dollars with state money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not use finite state dollars to fill the holes created by massive federal government deficit spending. The Child Care Counts program amounts to the state buying down labor costs. No long-term plan or exit strategy has been articulated by the proponents of the program, many of whom have stated that a continuation of the program would amount to a continuation of the status quo. In other words, it wouldn\u2019t open up additional slots at child care facilities,\u201d Stroebel said.<\/p>\n

The Republican deregulation plans include:<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AB 388 \u2013 Which would create a child care center renovations revolving loan program<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AB 389 \u2013 Which would create a new category of child care centers, called large family child care<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Centers that can have between four and 12 children.<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AB 390 \u2013 Which would allow people as young as 16 years old to work as a child care assistant.<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AB 391 \u2013 Which would increase the ratio of kids to workers at child care centers, and allow child care providers to have more kids in their buildings.<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AB 392 \u2013 Which would allow for more kids at home-based day care centers.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Wisconsin Democrats Want Money, Not Deregulation in Child Care Industry<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-democrats-want-money-not-deregulation-in-child-care-industry\/tcsquare\/2023\/09\/10\/ by Benjamin Yount \u00a0 Democratic lawmakers in Madison want…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5509,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5508\/revisions\/5509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}