Heather Murray, flanked by state Rep. Alex Joers, left, speaks to reporters about Gov. Tony Evers' budget proposal for $500 million to support child care providers. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

Lawmakers, child care providers and families — and some of their kids — spread out through the state Capitol Tuesday, hoping to persuade lawmakers to support a $500 million state investment in child care in the budget proposal that Gov. Tony Evers will unveil later in February.

“This needs to happen now and it needs to be sustained,” said State Rep. Alex Joers (D-Middleton) at a news conference Tuesday morning in the Wisconsin Assembly parlor.

Heather Murray operates a child care center in Waunakee, north of Madison, that has a licensed capacity for 60 children, but she’s kept the enrollment at half that number because she cannot hire enough child care teachers.

“When I decided to start a center in my community, my goal was to make sure families could go to work and leave their children in a setting where they knew their child would be nurtured, educated and cared for during the most vulnerable time in their lives,” Murray said. “To provide these quality experiences for children, I need staff.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wisconsin was able to use federal funds from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to pay child care providers monthly stipends that helped them bolster wages for employees without having to raise the fees they charge parents.

The Child Care Counts funds, originally $20 million a month, were cut to half that amount in mid-2023. When the Republican majority in the state Legislature declined to pick up the tab for continuing the program in the 2023-25 state budget, Evers, a Democrat, reallocated some federal funds to extend the subsidy program through June 2025.

Murray said Child Care Counts allowed her to increase pay for child care teachers, but she has been unable to afford health benefits for her staff. When the state subsidy was cut in half, she said, she had to raise tuition 9%. Two families left her center because they couldn’t afford the higher rate.

“If these investments for early education do not remain in the governor’s budget, there’s a possibility I will need to raise my tuition by $65 per week per child, to keep my doors open and pay my staff the wages they are currently getting,” Murray said, adding that in surveys, Wisconsin providers have said they will have to raise their fees without government support.

“If providers keep raising tuition, the average working family will be priced out of child care in the state,” Murray said.

Split up into five groups of four each, Murray, parents and the children that accompanied them went to visit the offices of legislators, focusing on the 16 members of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, where the state budget will be written in late spring and early summer.

None of the committee’s Republican members made themselves available, Murray said in an interview a few hours later, although the group had an enjoyable conversation with two of the four Democrats on the committee. The children distributed placards that said “Invest in Us.”

“I’m hoping it gets some attention,” Murray said.