LA CROSSE, WI — On Monday, State Senator Brad Pfaff visited a local child care facility and spoke in support of providers and advocates to recognize “A Day Without Child Care.” These events emphasize his fight to ensure working families in Wisconsin have access to quality, affordable child care.
Reporting highlighted the child care crisis facing our state, noting that the average annual cost of infant care exceeds tuition at UW-Madison, and highlighted Pfaff’s calls for the Legislature to make the Child Care Counts program supporting providers permanent. Governor Evers shifted emergency funding to the initiative as a stopgap last fall, but it will run out next June without further action, and facilities are already facing reduced payments.
Brad is committed to fixing the broken economics of child care — providers’ margins are too thin, but the costs are too high for working families. He knows the best way to address this issue is by providing sustained public support for quality child care facilities, supporting business leaders’ efforts to expand child care options for their employees, and putting money back in families’ pockets to help alleviate high child care costs. That’s what he has fought for in the State Senate, and he is running for re-election to continue that fight.
Read more:
La Crosse Tribune: Day Without Child Care places focus on burnout, understaffing in child care industry
By: Gavin Michaelson
“A Day Without Child Care is a day to highlight the need for dignified and worthy wages for hardworking early childhood educators, as well as the need for fights for equity and affordability in child care,” said Wisconsin Sen. Brad Pfaff.
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“Parents cannot afford the child care that we currently have — they struggle in order to make ends meet,” said Pfaff. “But yet at the same time, when you speak to child care providers, they will share stories about how paper thin the margins are. … We struggle to retain the best and the brightest who work within child care because the wages aren’t there.”
Pfaff called on the state Legislature to extend the state’s Child Care Counts program permanently. The session adjourned March 14 and is not set to begin again until next January once new representatives are elected.
“We need to make sure that we keep this permanently. … Child care is so extremely important to the working families in this area and in this state. It is oxygen to our economy; it makes our economy work,” said Pfaff. “The loving, caring child care that children from this area receive is so very important when it comes to childhood development.”
Child Care Counts is a state program that helped stabilize and sustain the early care industry. The program is set to expire in June 2025, but with the Legislature out until next year, Pfaff said the need for action remains critical.
WEAU 13 News: State lawmakers and advocates raise awareness for health care providers on “A Day Without Child Care”
By: Dashal Mentzel
Monday is “A Day Without Child Care.” It’s a day that advocates say is dedicated to demanding equitable, affordable, and accessible child care for all families, as well as better compensation for child care providers.
“Childcare is so extremely important to the working families in this area and in this state. It is the oxygen to our economy. It makes our economy work. Most importantly, it’s very important when it comes to childhood development,” says State Senator Brad Pfaff.
Pfaff visited The Parenting Place’s Child Care Empowerment Conference to discuss problems affecting child care providers and how to fix them. One of the issues Pfaff mentioned is the low wages that child care providers are receiving.
“We need to renew funding for programs like Child Care Counts. At the same time, we need to support businesses who are working to expand their childcare options,” says Pfaff.
WIZM: Child care workers in La Crosse gather to learn about ways to empower themselves
By: Brad Williams
Wisconsin state Sen. Brad Pfaff (D-Onalaska) said Gov. Tony Evers has been using federal funds to continue paying for the Child Care Counts program.
Pfaff argued at the session that it’s important to families to keep child care service affordable.
“On average in the state of Wisconsin,” Pfaff said, “one year of child care costs as much as tuition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Just think about that. It’s about $1,000 a month.”
Pfaff added that he knows parents in his Senate district who have to drive 20 miles one-way to take a child to daycare, because it’s not available where they live.
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Pfaff grew up on his family’s dairy farm in northern La Crosse County and has dedicated his life to serving the people of Western Wisconsin. He is running for re-election in the 32nd Senate District, which includes La Crosse County, most of Vernon County, southern Trempealeau County, and western Monroe County.
