After digging into detailed budget papers and talking to key players in developing budget
options for the Legislature, it looks like $5.84 million may be available for increasing child care payment rates under the Wisconsin Shares program. The final negotiations of the Joint Finance Committee as they completed their work on the budget included more funding than most child care advocates thought. The good news is that the rates are no longer frozen at 2006 levels, and there is movement toward a rate increase. That’s something to cheer about; $5.8 million is a lot of money, though there’s no guarantee that it will actually be used for this purpose.
“Lift as We Climb” into 2021
In 2020, both our state and our nation face unprecedented challenges, yet the words of educator and activist Mary Mcleoud Bethune articulated almost 100 years ago still resonate, “The progress of the world will call for the best that all of us have to give.” We strive...