Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers says he wants to do all he can to help childcare services in the state.
He took a tour of the Manitowoc/Two Rivers YMCA Friday afternoon to see what staff are doing to help kids learn and grow.
After the tour, he sat down with staff from the Y, Progress Lakeshore, Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickles, Manitowoc School District Superintendent Jim Feil, and more to talk about statistics surrounding issues with childcare.
Jamie Zastrow with Progress Lakeshore says Manitowoc County’s labor force continues to fall.
“Our rate was 57.87 which was down over 2.5 points from January the year before,” she explained. “That’s not new, we’ve dropped 6.5% in the last five years, so we need to change that directory a little bit.”
Later she discussed how 654 Manitowoc County families took a survey about the issue and 79% of respondents have had a childcare issue that affected their ability to work.
Common responses included childcare costs too much, the issue of availability, and trusting others to take care of their child.
Gov. Evers says he wants to use $365 million of the state’s $4 billion surplus to help fix some issues and keep the pandemic-era Child Care Counts Program.
He says the plan will take the childcare industry to a different level.
“We’ll be able to find more people that are willing to enter our workforce,” he detailed. “We have a shortage of workers in the state of Wisconsin. It’s not going to be solved overnight but one of the things we certainly can do is make it easier.”
After the Republican-led Assembly and Senate were asked to have a special session, both Houses gaveled in and adjourned, meaning they would look at the issue on a different day.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said that Senate Republicans will continue to stand with Wisconsin families that are struggling with inflation by presenting a workforce developmental proposal to Evers.
The governor said after we asked him what he thinks that “I can’t wait to see it. Hopefully it’s good. Whatever he’s got up his sleeve let’s hear it.”
Evers also said seeing what the Y does to help the little kids is extraordinary and will be helpful for future education but will also help people find jobs and get people to work.
