Evers holds roundtable at Nicolet College highlighting budget proposals for child care

Just a week after visiting Lake Tomahawk and making a stop at the Camp American Legion to highlight proposed budget investments he’s made in his 2025-27 executive budget, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers attended a roundtable discussion at Nicolet College in Rhinelander on Tuesday to highlight proposed budget investments in his executive budget for child care.

Trista Ecklund speaks during a roundtable discussion held by the Gov. Tony Evers to highlight proposed funding for child care in the state’s upcoming budget at Nicolet College on Tuesday, March 25, in Rhinelander.
(Photo by Trevor Greene/Lakeland Times)

The roughly hour long roundtable featured Evers, state Department of Children and Families secretary Jeff Pertl and members of the community representing different organizations such as child care centers, libraries and more. 

“Gov. Evers’ proposal makes meaningful investments in Wisconsin’s child care industry to help lower the cost of child care for working families, ensure child care providers can recruit and retain dedicated workers, and make child care more accessible by filling available slots and preventing further child care closures,” a press release announcing the March 25 event says. “The governor’s budget proposal will invest over $500 million to lower child care costs, support the industry, invest in employer-sponsored child care, and make the successful Child Care Counts Program permanent. To date, over $3 million in Child Care Counts funding has been paid to more than 20 child care providers in Oneida County.”

Created during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Child Care Counts Program is set to end by June of this year. 

In the same press release, it says state Republicans refused to continue funding the Child Care Counts Program during the last biennium budget cycle and include it in the current budget. 

Evers, speaking to the media after the roundtable discussion, said he thinks Republicans will come around this budget cycle once they hear from child care workers themselves. 

“I think it’s a good proposal,” he said. “We can afford it and we’re going to need it. It’s going to impact our economy. If they have a better idea, let’s have it. Now I know some people say ‘Well, we can solve this by changing our requirements so instead of having four babies with a teacher, we can have 20 babies with a teacher.’ You know, all that, frankly, isn’t going to make a difference. It’s going to make a difference in those kids, but it’s not going to make a difference in how many child care providers are going to be going out of business.”

Evers indicated if people are truly worried about the economy and don’t like his ideas, “then let’s start coming up with some others.”

He stressed the importance of investing more funding to close the gaps of child care shortages in Wisconsin.

“But money is going to have to happen,” Evers said. “The child care system cannot just change overnight. They’re going to need state money to do it. Simple as that.”

The state’s budget surplus funds are high and Evers said since the state has the money, “we mine as well invest it in something that’s going to help our economy.”

“If we just say ‘Well, the free market, that’s really cool,’ but then we’re going to lose all sorts of child care people and mom or dad’s going to have to stay home and that will absolutely destroy our economy,” he said. “That’s not a good option.”

Evers said he understands Republicans want to use the surplus to help with tax cuts, but explained that won’t solve the child care problem. 

“I understand the idea that everything will be better if we lower taxes, I understand that concept, but it’s going to wreck our economy,” he said. 

One takeaway from the roundtable discussion, Evers said, was the importance of people who tell him about their child care struggles to do the same with their state legislators. 

“If the legislators would listen to the people who are doing this work, they might have a different idea,” he said. “But, yeah, there were some really good ideas … some people suggested let’s just make it a public service itself, like an extension of the K-12 world. That’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s a good idea to look at. At the end of the day, we have a system that is about to tilt in the wrong direction.”

Evers said he thinks the child care system, if it continues the trend it’s on now, will result in a declining workforce.

“So I think it’s important for people to listen to the people that are driving our economy, and that is the people from the corporations, our business leaders,” he said. “They expect to have a good workforce. In order to have a good workforce, we’re going to have child care.”

On the front lines

Program director of Oak Tree Early Learning Center in Arbor Vitae, Trista Ecklund, attended the roundtable discussion. She’s been working in child care since 2006, she said, and is continuing her education to further her career in the field.

Ecklund said if the Child Care Counts Program is discontinued, the child care center she works for would need to consider weekly tuition prices to be able to maintain its employee compensation.

She said doing that would “greatly affect our families.”

Ecklund said she thought the roundtable was a positive opportunity for area residents to meet with the governor and talk about the impacts of state funding.

A lot of state dollars are put towards the public school system, she said, and added she’d like to see more funding, besides coming from the Child Care Counts Program, be allocated towards child care.

“It is important to invest in child care because in the end … these children are our future,” Ecklund said. 

Oak Tree Learning, she said, employs a total of 12 full- and part-time employees serving anywhere from 52 to 60 children a day. Ecklund said the waitlist for children to attend Oak Tree Learning is “extensive,” with an overall number of approximately 45 to 50 children on that list.

Ashlie Flanigan and her husband Luke are in the process of starting their own child care center in Minocqua called Tiny Tadpoles Child Care. They were both in attendance on Tuesday. 

Flanigan used to work at the Minocqua Hazelhurst Lake Tomahawk school district, but was unable to afford child care. Therefore, she said, she decided to stay home and operate an in-home day care. 

Tiny Tadpoles will be housed in a building off of U.S. Highway 51 south near Minocqua Pizza Company. Flanigan said they decided to expand after recognizing the need to care for more children in the area. 

She indicated it was hard to describe her thoughts on how the roundtable discussion with the governor went. 

Flanigan said more money to aid existing child care facilities affects her, “but not yet.” Right now, she said, changes most beneficial for her business would be with regard to helping open the doors to Tiny Tadpoles. 

Specifically, Flanigan said, pre-licensing and licensing “aren’t on the same terms.” She’s currently pursuing the proper licensing to open her business. 

“Pre-licensing told me I was good to go, licensing came in and told me no,” Flanigan said. “Everybody just needs to get on the same page. That’s the biggest thing, nobody’s on the same page.”

She indicated more child care centers are needed when she highlighted the lack of them in the Minocqua area.

“I think we have … three, four centers; it’s not enough,” Flanigan said. “I mean … I’m not even open yet and my waitlist is long, it’s long. Like I said, I’m not even licensed yet and I have parents reaching out to me like no other. It’s a need, a huge need.”

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].