Gov. Evers Again Urges Legislature to Invest in Child Care Counts as New Survey Finds Child Care Costs Skyrocket for Second Consecutive Year

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF), today announced the results of the 2025 Market Rate Survey, which found a steep increase in child care provider prices for working families. According to the 2025 report, Wisconsin families with an infant in center-based care are seeing an average 11 percent increase in monthly tuition prices, while families with an infant in family-based care are seeing an average 10 percent increase.

Gov. Evers, in his 2025-27 Executive Budget, proposed over $480 million to continue the successful Child Care Counts Program to help lower the cost of child care for working families, fill available child care slots, and cut child care wait lists. The new report comes as the state’s Republican-controlled state budget committee in recent weeks voted to remove over 600 proposals from Gov. Evers’ pro-kid budget, including the more than $480 million to continue the Child Care Counts Program, which has been a lifeline for local child care providers, ensuring they can pay their staff and keep their doors open and lights on without having to pass the full cost on to families.

“The cost of child care is too darn high for working families across our state. Period. And because the Legislature has refused for years to approve my proposed investments in Child Care Counts, Wisconsin continues to face a child care crisis that will be devastating for kids and families and our state’s workforce and economy when this program ends this summer. The Legislature must do more than nothing in this biennial budget to support our state’s child care providers and working families, or we are going to be in a world of hurt,” said Gov. Evers. “In 2025 the Year of the Kid, Republican lawmakers must support the Child Care Counts program to help make sure we have the staff to fill the child care slots we have, cut waitlists, and lower the cost of child care for working families across our state. I’m urging Wisconsinites to call their legislators and urge them to join me in the fight to support our child care providers, working families, and most especially, our kids.”

This is the second consecutive annual Market Rate Survey report showing significant back-to-back increases in child care tuition prices come as providers look to fill the gap from reduced Child Care Counts Program payments due to an end of the federal funding and a lack of additional state investment by Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature, despite the governor’s efforts to secure long-term, meaningful state funding. Without additional state investment, the program will end on June 30, 2025.

According to a recent DCF survey conducted in partnership with UW–Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty, a quarter of providers across the state are likely to close their doors and over a third of providers reported that they are likely to close classrooms or reduce their operating hours if the Wisconsin State Legislature fails to make critical investments to continue the successful Child Care Counts Program in this budget. Additionally, if the program ends, costs for infant care are expected to go up, with three-quarters of providers expected to raise weekly tuition rates for care, increasing costs for working families that are already experiencing steep tuition and strained household budgets. Of the 78 percent of providers who reported they will raise tuition for infant care, 21 percent expect to raise weekly rates by at least $25, and 17 percent expect rates to rise by at least $50, adding a whopping $1,300 or $2,600 to families’ household budgets per year, respectively.

“In the modern world, both parents work in most families,” said DCF Secretary Jeff Pertl. “I hear across the state how families need access to child care, but even when they can find it, it’s unaffordable. The most recent Market Rate Survey shows how child care has become a system of high costs for parents, low wages for staff, and terrible margins for child care providers.”

The Market Rate Survey is a federally required collection and analysis that helps the state determine what prices child care providers are charging and the buying power of its Wisconsin Shares subsidy program. According to DCF, the average annual cost for full-time infant care is $16,175 in center-based programs and $11,479 in family-based programs, equaling 21 percent and 15 percent, respectively, of the median household income in Wisconsin. With Wisconsin families spending, on average, more than a quarter of their income on homeownership costs alone, families are struggling to make ends meet, with most of their income being consumed by housing and child care.

For families participating in Wisconsin Shares, the state’s child care subsidy program, the rise in prices has led to another decline in child care affordability, with only 41 percent of slots considered affordable compared to 50 percent in 2023 and 74 percent in 2022. A slot is considered affordable when the maximum subsidy rate is at or above the price of the slot type. The last subsidy rate increase occurred in January 2022, which put the state the closest it has been to the 75 percent benchmark outlined in state statute and recommended by the federal government.

To help families keep more money in their household budgets and support the state’s workforce, the governor’s 2025-27 Executive Budget—the most pro-kid budget in state history—would have included more than $500 million to make child care more affordable and accessible for working families and support child care providers statewide. Instead, during the Year of the Kid, Republican lawmakers on the state’s budget committee voted against Gov. Evers’ plans to help fill available child care slots, cut child care wait lists, and lower the cost of child care for working families across Wisconsin. This included gutting:

• Over $480 million for the successful Child Care Counts Program, which has been a lifeline for local child care providers, ensuring they can pay their staff and keep their doors open and lights on without raising tuition rates; and
• Efforts to support employer-sponsored child care initiatives to assist employers in addressing their workforce’s child care challenges.

More information on the more than 600 proposals Republican lawmakers voted to strip from the governor’s budget is available here.

Launched in 2020 using federal relief dollars, the Child Care Counts Program has delivered over $850 million in upstream support to child care providers to increase wages, provide benefits, expand access, and more. To date, Child Care Counts has helped more than 5,600 child care providers keep their doors open, ensuring the employment of more than 72,000 child care professionals and allowing providers to continue care for more than 417,000 kids.

Wisconsinites can go to maps.legis.wisconsin.gov and enter their Wisconsin home address to find the contact information for their state representative in the Assembly and their state senator in the Senate.

Wisconsinites may also email Republican lawmakers who serve on the state budget committee and are poised to gut Gov. Evers’ pro-kid budget on behalf of their Republican colleagues by clicking the links below:

• State Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green)
• State Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point)
• State Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto)
• State Sen. Rob Stafsholt (R-New Richmond)
• State Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin)
• State Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-Birchwood)
• State Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam)
• State Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc)
• State Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (R-River Falls)
• State Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek)
• State Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake)
• State Rep. Karen Hurd (R-Withee)

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.