Starting in October, families living on Washington Island will have access to licensed child care for the first time since 2013, thanks to a project led by a group of Island parents and community members and the United Way of Door County.
The long term fate of the new program will depend on funding, and that fate aligns with the rest of the state’s child care programs, according to industry advocates.
Washington Island Child Care
Preliminary enrollment interest shows at least nine children will be attending Washington Island Child Care when it opens, representing parents who work in carpentry, civil service, construction, cosmetology, education, farming, fundraising, hospitality, retail and self-employed business ownership on the Island.
Census information from 2020 says the Island’s year-round population is 777 people.
The program can take up to ten children depending on the age of the child and staffing, according to Alex Mcdonald, WICC’s board treasurer, in accordance with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Family staffing ratios and requirements. The program will serve year-round Island residents as its priority, she added, but depending on enrollment may be able to accommodate seasonal families and after school care for older children in the future.
When WICC opens, it will provide care Monday through Thursday, 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A full-time lead teacher and center director has been hired already, according to McDonald, but WICC is still searching for at least one or two additional teachers.
The program will operate out of the Bethel Evangelical Free Church building, though it has no religious affiliation.The lease agreement between Bethel and WICC will cover extra utility costs incurred by the church, said Richard Tobey, a church elder who also serves on the WICC board. The church’s interest in hosting the center is as a service to the community, he said.
United Way is acting as the fiscal agent for WICC, until it gets its own nonprofit status approved. United Way and the Women’s Fund of Door County have provided money for teacher training, certification and licensing fees, physical infrastructure such as yard fencing, and other financial help to get the project up and running, McDonald said.
United Way received $3.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act federal Covid relief funds in 2021. One of the initiatives funded by the grant is child care, and that money is what the organization used to help the Island program. United Way has also used relief funds to assist in construction of a new building for the Door Community Child Development Center in Sturgeon Bay, renovations at the Northern Door Children’s Center in Sister Bay, and other initiatives to improve child care options in Door County.
The Women’s Fund of Door County is collaborating with United Way and is an independent nonprofit organization that provides grant opportunities and partnerships in support of their mission “to build, enrich and nurture the lives of women and girls through collective wisdom and philanthropy,” according to their website.
Despite tuition fees, financial help with startup costs, and support from United Way, the Women’s Fund of Door County and Washington Island Lions Club, WICC has projected an estimated $30,000 annual budget shortfall for operating costs before it even opens its doors, McDonald said.
The program will rely on fundraising campaigns to fill the gap, she said.
Jake Dahlke serves as vice chair on the WICC board and is also a parent who will use the program once it starts. “We couldn’t have done this without United Way and the other initial donors,” he said and estimated startup costs, not including payroll, to be between $25,000 and $30,000.
Not alone
Child care programs statewide face similar budget issues, according to Ruth Schmidt, executive director of Wisconsin Early Childhood Association. The organization is a nonprofit advocacy group representing the early childhood workforce and early child care education in Wisconsin.
Child care is one of the few industries where employers and programs have to fundraise to meet their budget goals, Schmidt said.
“Can you imagine other service-based industries doing that?” she said. “Nationally we have become comfortable with that situation.”
Industry representatives have known it’s happening and policy and lawmakers have done little to change it, she added.
The childcare market is a failed market, Schmidt said, and revenue not meeting expenses is the norm.
Molly Gary, childcare community coordinator for United Way of Door County, agreed with Schmidt. The problem with child care programs is they are largely funded through tuition fees which worked out when livable wages were lower, she said, but a livable wage is now at least $18 to $20 per hour.
The median income of a child care worker in Wisconsin, depending on the kind of program they work in, is $7.46 to $12.99 per hour, according to a 2022 report by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.
For the last decade or so, however, in order to pay child care workers a living wage or provide benefits on top of the skyrocketing cost of rent, food and other necessities for a program, centers must raise tuition, Gary said. It is often more than families are willing or able to pay.
Federal Covid relief funding provided support to the struggling industry in the last few years, Schmidt said, and for the first time stakeholders were able to see what happens when programs receive monthly support. They were keeping their doors open, keeping rates down as inflation went up and providing higher wages for workers, she said.
On June 30, 2025 that revenue will run out and Wisconsin’s child care industry will fall off a “fiscal cliff,” according to Schmidt.
The Wisconsin Early Childhood Association lobbies for state investment in child care programs and supported a $340 million comprehensive workforce plan by Governor Evers as part of the 2023-25 state budget. The plan would continue funding Child Care Counts and investing in child care programs. Child Care Counts was initiated during the Covid pandemic to sustain the industry.
The Republican-led state legislature voted to cut Evers’ workforce plan out of the budget in September 2023. The governor eventually allocated $170 million additional dollars of Covid relief money to continue the Child Care Counts program at current funding levels until 2025.
Unless state lawmakers make some changes, Schmidt said, “The issue this new program (on Washington Island) is grappling with, a budget gap, will be what all child care will go through in the state once the funding runs out.”
“They stepped up and did what needs to be done.They are a really inspiring group of people to work with.”
Molly Gary, Child Care Coordinator, United Way of Door County, about her experience working with Island community members to start a child care program.
Schmidt, Gary and other industry advocates, including the Wisconsin chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, believe childcare is necessary infrastructure and part of the public good and should be funded with public money.
Partisan politics is one of the reasons Wisconsin is not investing enough in child care, according to Schmidt.
“The problem is it’s a big issue with a big price tag so it’s hard for policymakers to come together,” she said.
They have come together in several other states, though, according to Schmidt, including Alaska, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Vermont, and Washington, whose state legislatures have extended public investment in the child care industry once federal relief runs out.
Local legislators respond
“I think we need to help childcare but I’m not sure that was the way to do it,” State Rep. Joel Kitchens said, referring to Evers’ workforce plan. Kitchens is a Republican and represents Door, Kewaunee and parts of Brown County.
In reference to Evers’ use of emergency Covid funds for child care, Kitchens said that investing surplus money like federal relief into ongoing programs like child care is not wise. It is the reason state child care programs will struggle after June 2025, he said, this kind of funding creates a fiscal cliff with no safety net once that revenue stops.
Republican State Sen. Andre Jacque represents Door County as part of State Senate District 1, and he agreed with Kitchens’ perspective on spending one-time revenue on ongoing programs. The result, according to Jacque?
“You create a political fall person that’ll be stuck with the bill down the road,” he said.
Problems with child care in Wisconsin are mostly a workforce issue, Jacque said, both on the child care worker side of things and providing child care for members of the workforce who need it.
Republican lawmakers are looking for lots of different ways to help with child care, Kitchens said, but their perspective is not to set up “new entitlement.”
Things like tax credits for families with children in care, incentives for businesses to provide child care for their employees and changing regulation so it’s less expensive for programs to operate are all better ways to support child care in Wisconsin versus “cutting a check to child care centers,” he said.
Businesses stepping in and providing assistance with child care for their employees is key, he added, and it is an employee’s market right now. If a business offers child care, it will be more attractive to employees, Kitchens said, and that is how Republican lawmakers would like to see the free market step in.
Workforce shortages make childcare a more integral corner of a business’s infrastructure, according to Jacque, and companies that need to hire more people will see the benefits of helping them with child care.
Employers providing support is great, Schmidt countered, but it is only supporting the families, not creating revenue for the child care programs themselves. And that is where the greatest need lies, she said.
“As we’re letting the free markets play out, classrooms are closing, raising tuitions, and families are going without care,” she said.
“I honestly feel like we’re putting families through trauma right now,” Gary said, “There is nothing more traumatic for parents than not having a safe, secure, caring place for their children to be while they are working.”
Kitchens said he is representing voters who are opposed to increased state funding. “Families who decided to sacrifice careers and other things to have a parent stay at home, and they don’t want to have to pay for other people’s decisions,” Kitchens explained.
Single parent and low income households who do not have the ability to have someone stay home to care for children are eligible for federal tax credits, Kitchens said, and the state will likely do that as well.
“Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying everyone should have a parent stay home,” Kitchens said, and there is assistance available if those families need it.
Jacque said the very diversity of makeup in family structures and work schedules and shift work is why state-funded child care is not the best option—it does not address the complexity of the needs.
“There are a lot of unique situations that get crammed into a traditional daycare center structure,” he said.
Island confidence
For Island families who have been without licensed child care for a long time, there is excitement about the service that will soon be available.
McDonald is the clerk/treasurer for the Town of Washington and her husband Ray owns and operates his family business. They have been relying on family to care for their one year old daughter, and are fortunate to have been able to do so, said McDonald.
“But if we have another child, and there are other grandchildren on the way (in the extended family), it can be a lot for grandparents,” she said.
Jake and Miranda Dahlke have been actively involved in starting WICC. They own WIS-CO, an Island coffee shop and eatery, and Miranda is a science teacher at the Island school. Their son is four months old and for now, he comes to work with his dad.
The Dahlkes have no other options for child care without WICC, Jake said.
“This is it,” he said, pointing to the baby carrier he was wearing on his chest and the portable crib behind WIS-CO’s counter. “We don’t have family here. He’d be at work with me everyday.”
The McDonald and Dahlke families, along with several others on the Island, have given time and energy to meetings and the long checklist of to-dos that goes into setting up a licensed child care program.
Jake and Alex both estimated they spend four to five hours a week on WICC-related matters. Now besides working full time jobs, raising children, and starting a child care program, they will be fundraising for it as well, Gary said.
The next step for WICC is development and a fundraising campaign, she said.
Kitchens praised the Washington Island community and its philanthropic spirit. “It’s different than many other places,” he said, and he expressed confidence in the ability of WICC to maintain funding through donors.
Gary has worked closely with the Island group since last year to get a program started. She said she has loved working with them and also has confidence in the program as a result of the work she has seen.
“They stepped up and did what needs to be done,” she said. “They are a really inspiring group of people to work with. I’d highly recommend them to anyone who wants to invest in WICC as a worthwhile and safe investment in the future of the Island.”
United Way is hosting a Childcare Summit on Oct. 29. Discussion topics will include why quality child care is an essential service, how it benefits communities, how it is a large return on investment and why it is crucial in brain development and social and emotional growth, Gary said.
Advocacy for state funding will be part of the summit, she said, as well as a three-pronged community funding model involving philanthropy, businesses, and private individuals to further support child care in Door County.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly named the Bethel Evangelical Free Church. It is the Bethel Evangelical Free Church, not the Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church. The story has been corrected.