WisGOP Sen Stroebel has a child care solution - mega-marts for kids!

As September looms, remember that Governor Evers has called a special session of the Legislature for next month on a number of priorities that did not get funded in the regular budget. Central to that is Evers’ request to pay for the Child Care Counts program, which was a federally-funded COVID relief program that was intended to keep child care centers open, and Evers wanted to continue that after the funds from DC ran out.

If Republicans refuse to address the child care crisis, a recent report estimates 2,110 providers could close, we could lose 4,800 child care jobs, and 87,000 children could be left without care.

Wisconsin families and our workforce can't afford that. https://t.co/dsGb688Ddg

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) August 28, 2023

I don’t think our gerrymandered GOP Legislature will do much about it, but I think it’s worth reviewing the issue here, as Wisconsin child-care centers are already saying they will close due to the funds drying up in the coming months. So let’s go back to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s “comparative summary” on the budget, which goes over how the budget got changed from when Governor Evers introduced it, all the way to the final product.

Governor Evers wanted to use $38 million from the FEDs and $303.1 million from the state.

Authorize DCF to establish a program to make monthly payments and monthly per-child payments to certified child care providers, licensed child care centers, and child care programs established or contracted for by a school board. Authorize DCF to promulgate rules to implement the program, including establishing eligibility requirements and payment amounts and setting requirements for how recipients may use the payments. Specify that DCF may promulgate the rules as emergency rules without providing a finding of an emergency.

Repeal an obsolete provision that prohibits DCF from increasing the maximum payment rates for child care providers before June 30, 2013.

The Child Care Counts stabilization payments program provides monthly payments to child care providers to support the costs of maintaining high quality care and to support workforce recruitment and retention. The payment period runs in two, nine-month blocks from August, 2022, through April, 2023, followed by a subsequent nine-month payment program from May, 2023, through January, 2024. Payments for provider costs are determined based on a per child amount by age (for example each full-time infant would increase the payment by $175) plus an additional amount for each child who: (a) receives Wisconsin Shares; (b) attends during non-standard hours; or (c) participates in a Birth-to-3 child care pilot program. Payments for staff recruitment and retention are determined based on an amount per employee ($150 for each full-time and $75 per part-time worker) plus a quality incentive amount for YoungStar participating providers (for example, $350 per full-time worker for 5-Star providers). The program is currently funded from one-time supplemental and emergency CCDBG funds the state received under the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

In response to the criticism about the GOP’s refusal to go along with Evers’ plans for continuing Child Care Counts, State Sen. Duey Stroebel (R-Cedarburg) penned a letter to the editor to a WOW County group of newspapers, and claimed that WisGOPs are allowing more Wisconsinites to get assistance for child care services.

Republicans are not "defunding" Child Care Counts—– the program is simply expiring as the federal money is exhausted, as intended. At the state level, Wisconsin is investing more in child care than before COVID. In the new budget, Republicans increased the income eligibility for the Wisconsin Shares program to 200% of the federal poverty level and lengthened the phase-out of the benefit at a cost of $22 million.

This is pathetic spin. Let me show where it comes from, based on the LFB analysis of the state’s child care programs, and in particular, the Wisconsin Shares subisidy program.

Initial eligibility for Wisconsin Shares is limited to families with gross income of no more than 185% of the federal poverty level (FPL), which is $45,991 for a family of three in 2023. The copayments of participating families whose incomes increase above the 200% FPL threshold ($49,720 for a family of three) increase by $1.00 for every $3.00 by which the family's gross income exceeds 200% of the FPL. These families retain eligibility until either the copayment reduces the subsidy to $0 or their income increases to the exit threshold of 85% of state median income.

So Sen. Stroebel is talking about expanding the funding of Wisconsin Shares to a handful of families with incomes between that 185% and 200% threshold, and the “lengthening of the phase-out of the benefit” is changing that $1 in $3 co-pay to $1 in $5.

I won’t deny that these are good things, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to WisGOP’s refusal to fund Child Care Counts, and the drying up of the availability of child care services (and jobs) for a lot more Wisconsinites. Increased subsidies for a handful of families means nothing if they can’t be used anywhere because THE CHILD CARE CENTERS CLOSE. Or they jack up prices in order to stay in business.

From there, Stroebel starts to get ridiculous with his next paragraph.

By contrast, the requested state-funded backfill of Child Care Counts is a cash handout to businesses. It’s not targeted at those with low or moderate income and does not require increased wages for staff or increased available slots for families. Child Care Counts was not designed to be a perpetual stream of state funds but rather a one-time gift of federal funds to keep the industry afloat during the lockdown. Family situations vary, but is it right to ask everyone, including those who make financial trade-offs to be a one-income household, to subsidize the child care costs of middle- and upper-income families?

The “financial trade-offs to be a one-income household?” How many families with young kids even have the luxury to have that be an option in 2023? And nice attempt at playing the resentment game, as if middle and upper-income families don’t deserve affordable and accessible child care as well?

But hey, unlike most WisGOPs, at least Sen. Stroebel does have a larger-scale plan to solve the child care crisis.

As a state, we should look to reducing cost by tackling burdensome government overregulation. Wisconsin overly regulates the number of children allowed in a day care, square footage of the facility, licensing compliance and even limitations on disciplinary action. The unintended consequences of heavy government involvement are often higher costs, or even driving child care providers out of the market, without significantly improving quality. Parents want available slots more than they want attempted regulated perfection.

Yeah! Why don’t we shove these little kids into mega-mart centers, with huge classrooms, unqualified teachers and care givers? And have these unqualified staffers be able to strongly discipline those 3-year-olds if they get out of line! That won't go wrong at all!

(Side note – didn’t Stroebel complain earlier in the same piece about an alleged lack of wage requirements for Child Care Counts? But every other part should be DE-regulated? Also, this same guy has opposed every attempt to raise a minimum wage in this state for the last 12 years).

This is why he’s “No Cluey Duey”. According to his bio, Sen. Stroebel has 8 kids with his wife (an “involved parent” who serves on the Cedarburg School Board), and given how these two roll, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say that they didn't have to worry much about paying for child care. Or in having to run a business that relies on lower-income workers supplying services that working people need.

This is what happens when a small-town, small-time businessman gets lucky on some real estate holdings, and he thinks that makes him an expert in everything else in the world. We should be hammering these GOPs who have few solutions (or desire) to deal with real problems that Real Wisconsinites have. And the few absurd and outdated solutions they have illustrate further just how insulated from reality these GOPs are.