Some glimmers of hope arise for Dane County child care providers, workers amid industry woes

Apr. 2—Macy Buhler, director of a child care facility in DeForest, knows all too well the high costs — literal and emotional — that come with raising children.

A parent herself, Buhler offers teachers at her Yahara River Learning Center who qualify free child care slots at her facility on top of what she's able to pay them, which is an average of $15 an hour. That's on top of charging parents an average of $250 per week, which Buhler said is about $100 below the true cost of child care.

She's not alone. Which is why one local college and the state's Department of Children and Families are taking action through grants to help businesses cover their employees' child care costs and encourage communities to come together to find creative solutions to the problem.

On Monday, the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association plans to announce additional resources for the hard-hit industry.

On average, Dane County child care programs charged $224 to $261 last year to care for children up to age 6, according to data from 4-C, a child care accrediting organization. For group programs such as preschools, camps and regulated centers, that figure was between $339 and $355 for the same age groups. For some facilities, those rates may be much higher.

Yet the average starting wage for a lead child care teacher might be $14 an hour; for an assistant teacher, $11.50. Those rates are well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour but aren't enough to cover the average cost of living in the region.

Buhler can accommodate offering free services to employees in a way that minimally affects the Learning Center's bottom line, but the business is unable to expand and hire more workers amid a talent shortage that has spared few industries during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. While staff take care of close to 80 children, Buhler routinely turns away parents desperate to find affordable care.

Buhler has applied for one of a two-part, nearly $20 million state grant program that aims to not only work with companies to support child care facilities but also inspire the formation of organizations looking to solve problems in an industry inundated by wait lists, low wages, increasing costs and limited training and employment opportunities.

The program, called Project Growth, includes the Partner Up! grant with $10 million to help businesses form partnerships with regulated child care facilities to purchase open slots for employees at the true cost of care. The state program also encompasses Dream Up! — with $8.1 million providing funding in 30 communities around the state over the next two years.

Teams in each community will work to evaluate, plan and expand child care resources in the areas where they determine there is a need, said Erin Arango-Escalante, administrator for the Department of Children and Families' Division of Early Care and Education.

In the last few months, Madison Area Technical College also received a $2.9 million Workforce Innovation Grant out of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to address the child care shortage.

Additionally, Wisconsin's Child Care Counts program has doled out $228 million to support child care facilities, Department of Children and Families Secretary Emilie Amundson said in February, with $351 million in the pipeline.

Through its grants, Partner Up! hopes to have the Department of Children and Families cover 75% of the cost of each open child care slot, with businesses matching 25% for the first year, Arango-Escalante said. According to the department, the true cost of child care is $1,800 per month for full-time infant care and $1,100 for a child age 3.

"The money then goes from the business to the provider," she explained. "(The business) can choose how many slots it wants ... and contract with the provider for three, six, nine or 12 months."

The deadline to submit an application for both Partner Up! and Dream Up! is Monday.

Any employer, including a child care facility, can apply for the Partner Up! program, she said. For Dream Up! teams of community members such as business leaders, economic development organizations, school districts, local governments and child care programs are especially encouraged to partake.

Buhler said she has six employees with children whom she hopes to support through Partner Up!, on top of the benefits she already provides.

Anne Alexander, owner of DeForest-based We Care Family Child Care, said she's made the three families she serves aware of Partner Up! and hopes they will work with their employer to take advantage of the program, for she is the sole employee.

The $2.9 million MATC received will not only help build capacity for child care slots on the city's South Side, but also for the institution's other campuses in the region, said MATC's Early Learning Campus manager Donna Jost.

In Madison, that might mean renovating a space near the college campus, Jost said.

The money is expected to cover scholarship opportunities for people interested in an early childhood education career at the college, she said, adding that will involve "reworking some of the educational coursework to make it flexible and accessible to both high school graduates and existing providers increasing their skill sets."

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