From Corrine Hendrickson
Secretary Green County Child Care Network
To the Editor:
As you have probably heard, the $340 million for child care was gutted in the dead of night on Friday morning at 2:30 a.m. The Green County Child Care Network would like to invite all of you to a Save Child Care Counts rally. As a reminder, 25% of the child care businesses in the county are expected to shut down with this loss of funding. The rest will be forced to raise rates by at least $50 a week.
The new rates for the YMCA once completed are $290 for infant-2 and $240 for 4 year olds. That means they would become $330-280 a WEEK. How many of our parents can afford almost $1,500 a month for one child?
That means the 22 million annually we lose will increase exponentially and every single business in the county will be affected. Our tourism and dairy industries will be negatively affected with revenues lost and prices increased due to women with young children (70% of which work in our state/county) leaving the workforce because the math, which barely worked, no longer does.
The other option in order for employers to keep these valuable employees, that have care left, but with significantly higher rates, is to raise base wages for all employees by at least $2 an hour, but realistically closer to $4 as most people with young children have at least two in care.
Birth rates are already declining, Green County already has one of the oldest populations in the state as well. We need to attract young people and having no child care will NOT be a way to do it. The housing crisis will get worse as household incomes are halved to one and homes/rent will be even more unaffordable. Our food pantries will be significantly more utilized. Our Public Health and Health and Human Services will be inundated with people needing more of their services to eat, heating help, WIC, Badgercare, mental health navigator, etc.
We are asking you to come to the save child care rally at 10 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday, June 20) morning to attend the event that Brooke Skidmore and Corrine Hendrickson are coordinating and new President, Jillynn Niemeier will be attending along with several other Green County Child Care Professionals.
I am also asking any of you who are willing to speak for a minute or two to do so. We are working out the specific logistics still, but Corrine would like there to be an opportunity for those who are inspired to speak at the end, that they have the opportunity.
Please also contact our seven elected county reps and ask them to commit to include an amendment in the budget for $340 million to continue Child Care Counts.
Spread this in an email far and wide as well.
Event if on facebook as the location will be updated there:https://fb.me/e/TnjatXNw there is also a lot of information in the discussion.
