Wages minus childcare costs equals complex problem for Madison’s working families,” according to Madison Magazine in its July 2015 article, Childcare costs pinch working families. Meeting the costs of child care is often out of reach for parents, and high-quality programs struggle to sustain their standards.

The extensive look at child care in Madison includes interviews with working parents, child care administrators, policy analysts, and policymakers. Here’s a sample of quotes:

“Wisconsin Shares is a free-market voucher system that sadly ignores the market.” – George Hagenauer, 4-C

“….decline in childcare funding has had a particularly negative impact on working low-income parents struggling to support their families and prepare their children for school.” –Dave Edie, WCCF

“If you want to pay your staff more, you have to raise your rates. But you can’t raise your rates because if all providers tried to pay the staff comparable to what other workers are making … no one could afford to have their children in childcare.” –Ruth Schmidt, WECA

It’s an interesting read, examining the child care world from several perspectives, including a Department of Children and Families spokesperson, Monica Host at the City of Madison, Jen Bailey director of Head Start and Early Head Start at Dane County Parent Council, Wendy Rakower at Red Caboose, Abbie Kruse at The Playing Field, and Kaleem Caire at One City Early Learning Centers.

The child care challenges in Madison are similar to other communities all across Wisconsin, except that Madison has probably invested more to solve the problems than any other community in the state.

Dave Edie