Report Warns Low-income Workers Still Unemployed
Decrease in child care subsidy use suggests many low-income parents not back at work.
Child care. Photo from the State of Wisconsin.
After rising early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Wisconsin’s child care subsidy program has fallen dramatically since last summer — signaling a potential stumbling block in maintaining child care access, but also difficulty in returning low-income workers to the workforce, according to a new analysis from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
Enrollment in Wisconsin Shares, which enables low-income families to stay in the workforce by helping cover their child care costs, dropped by 27% in July, and has remained much lower than its usual level even after slight enrollment increases, according to the report.
Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed 2021-23 state budget includes a $70 million program to assist child care providers in improving their operating margins, reducing staff turnover and addressing the greater expense of child care for infants and toddlers, the analysis observes.
In addition, Wisconsin will receive about $147 million from a federal child care grant program enacted last year, and $581 million from the American Rescue Plan Act’s child care funding provisions.
The report says that Wisconsin Shares enrollment offers “a barometer of the pace at which low-income parents and guardians are returning to the workforce and to detect whether child care challenges may be impeding the pace of the economic recovery.”
The new federal funds, the report adds, offer the state a chance “to vastly expand its support for families who rely on child care, child care providers and their employees,” but that “policymakers also will need to consider whether they can sustain whatever changes they do make once federal funds are exhausted.”
Reprinted with permission of Wisconsin Examiner.
