On December 2, the U.S. Senate passed a bill for universal childcare and 5 days later the House also passed the universal childcare bill. This was an unprecedented act to have both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate agree on the importance of child care for our families and our economy. Unfortunately, this was 1971, and President Nixon vetoed it four days later on Dec. 9, claiming it would have “family weakening implications.” Simply put, women belonged in the home. In fact, it would be another 3 years before women would be allowed to even apply for a credit card, cause, you know we are “incapable of being in charge of finances.”

But as far as childcare goes, it has been over 50 years since the veto, and the U.S. is now ranked as one of the worst industrialized countries in the world for early care and education (only above Turkey). We spend less than 1% of GDP on early childcare. The current childcare system results in an annual US economic loss of $98 billion. The average cost of child care in the U.S. is $340 per week, annually $17,680 for year-round care. Families with two young children are spending more on childcare than their mortgage or rent. Over half of the nation is considered a childcare desert. 71% of individuals aged 17-24 are ineligible to serve in the military, which is a significant risk to our national security. And we know the best way to prevent the ineligibility of individuals to join the armed forces is to provide quality child care during their foundational years, so they can grow into productive citizens. The research is clear that children who experience quality child care do better on almost all social and economic measures, including physical and mental health along with higher earnings.

But sure, let’s not support early child care as it clearly has “family weakening implications.” And this rhetoric continues to this day. Sen. Mitch McConnell stated the following regarding the childcare provisions written into the Build Back Better (which passed the House, but denied a vote in the Senate) and would have capped families’ co-pay at 7% of their household income on childcare instead of the 10%-40% they currently pay; “The Democrats have written their Toddler Takeover in ways that would turn families’ finances literally upside down.” But to be fair to McConnell, it would have actually turned families’ finances upside down, where families would no longer be in debt and have to negotiate between paying for necessities like food and shelter over child care. Or even their ability to financially afford to have another child, one of the most cited reasons for not having a child is financial. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin stated, “it is not the federal government’s responsibility to educate all children.” That quote is a real head-scratcher given the constitution states that all children in the United States have a right to an education. With 90% of brain development occurring within the first 5 years, makes those years the most critical in their education, and care is education. 

Most recently the healthcare rights and privacy of women are most likely to be taken away in the coming weeks and this has everything to do with child care as well. The majority of terminated pregnancy is of families of lower-income who already have a child and their reasoning is that they cannot afford another child. In Wisconsin, the average cost of a hospital birth is $11,200 (without complications, my daughter spent two weeks in the NICU, and without insurance would have been over $100,000). As a nation and state, we do not offer paid time off to have a baby, therefore, the loss of wages and then of course the cost of childcare for a single mom is over half of her income, given that women make $.80 to the dollar of our male counterparts. Women are set up for failure.  

The systems of failure are exacerbated when women work in an industry that is predominantly female, as is the child care profession, with a 98% women workforce. In female-dominated fields, the pay is considerably less along with fewer benefits. The early child care field is historically devalued and underinvested because they are women, full stop. Just as 50 years ago, when many believed that a woman belonged in the home, just as anti-women’s rights activist Phylis Schlafly stated, “One reason a woman gets married is to be supported by her husband. So long as her husband earns a good income, she doesn’t care about the pay gap.” There are still those that believe in this.

Take our U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, when he states; “When you have mothers on different kinds of public assistance, to me, an elegant solution would be, why don’t we have them help staff child care for other mothers?” Over 50% of childcare teachers are themselves on public assistance because the pay is so terrible. The average teacher pay in Wisconsin is $10.66. In Green County, the largest childcare program has a starting wage of $8.50. I would like to see Sen. Johnson make a living on this wage and work in a highly stressful and critical job like childcare. Additionally, over 52% of the Wis. early childcare teachers have an associate’s degree or higher. Can you say that about the male-dominated construction field, where the average wage is $22 hourly? This is by no means to say construction workers should not make that or even more, or that their job is not stressful, but isn’t child care worthy of the wage too, especially given how impactful the job is on our economy? The only way to increase wages is to increase the costs for families. Families cannot nor should they have to pay 10-40% of their household pay for childcare. Yet Sen. Johnson is against making childcare more affordable because “people decide to have families and become parents; that’s something they need to consider when they make that choice. I’ve never really felt it was society’s responsibility to take care of other people’s children.” It is clear that he does not understand the economics of what happens when a society is proactive in ensuring that our future citizens have a healthy start. Sen. Johnson is perfectly fine with spending 10 times that for our judicial and penal system than the cost had they supported a child in their first five years. He does not understand the negative implications of our workforce quantity, our GDP, global competitiveness, and our national security when we do not invest in our children and families. I would like to say his statements are based on ignorance, but given the multiple meetings I have had with his office and the research that is provided to him, it is clear that we are dealing with willful ignorance and/or continued gender discrimination.

If I come across as angry and frustrated, it is because I am. When I started in this profession 10 years ago, I enrolled a little girl with down syndrome. I did not think twice about it, as I assumed there would be support for this child to help us properly care and provide that additional support she needed. I naively assumed we as a society took care of our most vulnerable population. I was incredibly wrong. I fought to no avail for her rights and the rights of the other children over these past 10 years. I see families struggle to afford childcare. I take the calls every week of desperate parents trying to find care for their child. I see teachers giving their all for an underappreciated, under-valued, and under-funded job. I see what happens to children when they are not properly cared for and their needs are not met. I see the trajectory they are placed on through no fault of their own. I have seen how our systems provide as little as they can to get away with for these children. And yet, we expect them to grow into successful adults, when their first 5 years of life; the foundation years, are abysmal for them. What happens when the foundation of a building is shoddy? 

So don’t tell me that it is not society’s responsibility to care for our children, as it should not only be clear from a moral standpoint, and if not morally than economically when we pay the price tenfold later on.  

Even after the pandemic demonstrated how critical child care is to not only our families but to our economy, the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) voted “no” last year to provide any funds for early child care including the Green County area representative who co-chairs the JFC; Sen. Marklein. While at the same time, the majority of constituents agree with supporting and funding early childcare. Which begs the question, who is Marklein representing?

The child care profession is low-status and low-wage, with that said, we do not have big money or lobbyists to influence policymakers. All we have is our voice and our vote. And on May 9 several of us shut down our childcare programs and joined the national movement of The Day Without Child Care. We asked our families and children, along with invitations to our elected local and state policymakers, to create awareness and promote change.   

Speakers from SWCAP, Lion’s Club, Main Street Alliance, New Glarus Chamber, United Way Green County joined Corrine and Brooke, teacher Lani Harrison, parent Abby Funseth, and original Worthy Wager Peggy Haack in sharing their stories of how child care impacts our community and them personally. This inspired several more parents and audience members to also speak up about how child care impacts our community. Parents spoke about how it is important for parents to have choices, employers need to be flexible, and the educators don’t earn what they should, shared stories of driving miles out of their way to secure child care, planning their pregnancies around openings, not having more children since it is unaffordable. The educators shared stories of how they live in poverty, see wonderful people leave the field because they can’t afford to stay. A recent survey shared that to business owners, childcare accessibility and affordability was repeatedly singled out as a roadblock to the success of local businesses.”

We are at a precipice, we can continue with things as they are, with a decline in providers (10 years ago, Green County had 88, now there are 33). We can continue to not invest in our future. We can continue to spend higher amounts on healthcare, public assistance, and judicial systems, all while decreasing our tax base, or we can invest in our future. Your voice and your vote are all we have.

— Child Care Matters is a series written by local child care providers. Brook Skidmore of The Growing Tree runs a child care center in New Glarus.