Eau Claire Child Care Activists Rally for Funding in Phoenix Park

Eau Claire area child care workers, activists, and parents held a rally at Phoenix Park over the weekend calling for increased state funding.

The rally was put together by Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed. Organizers with the group say they’re working to raise awareness about a lack of adequate support for child care in the new biennial state budget.

The event came just a couple of weeks after Governor Tony Evers visited the area to highlight child care funding in the budget. During a visit to the YMCA in downtown Eau Claire, Governor Evers said he believes the $360 million in child care funding will be enough to keep many of those facilities open for the next two years.

Organizers of the rally on Saturday disagreed with that opinion. “The $480 million keeps the prices stabilized,” said Julia Bennker, owner of Ms. Julia’s School Family Child Care. “But keeping the prices stabilized is not enough for the children and families in our communities. So we are using today to raise awareness of what is in the budget for child care and how it is not enough still.”

Corrine Hendrickson, a cofounder of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed, is also the owner of a child care facility. Due to the reduced funding in the new state budget, her facility will close next month. “I actually am going to be one of those closing their business,” she said. “August 29th I will be done, because I was going to have to raise my rates so much that my current families were not going to be able to afford me.”

Governor Evers had previously proposed $442 million in child care investments before reaching a budget deal with the Republican-controlled state legislature. The proposal came with warnings that without additional investment, many child care facilities across the state would close.

State Representative Christian Phelps attended the rally as well. He explained that one of the reasons he voted against the budget was inadequate child care funding.

“I’m here because I believe there’s no such things as a child who doesn’t deserve a thriving present and future in Wisconsin,” he said while addressing the crowd. “And if you agree with me, maybe you’ll understand that there are two ways to look at public dollars and state resources. One of them is as an opportunity to fund all the services that people need and deserve in our state, most specifically to support babies and children so that they can have a thriving future and we all can. The other way to look at it is as a pot of money that you can use to make yourself and your friends richer.”