Since 2009, my full-time active duty Army husband and I have moved five times across state lines and navigated two deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet one of the largest stressors we’ve experienced has been securing and paying for child care for our two daughters.
In our new home in Wisconsin, thousands of children — a projection of 87,425 — are set to lose their child care in September as a result of the “stabilization cliff.” In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act gave states nearly $40 billion in federal emergency relief funds for child care to stabilize this sector during the pandemic. When the child care industry stops receiving this investment, it is expected to contract. In Wisconsin, 2,110 child care programs could close.
This is why I have joined the Campaign for Childcare to organize for universal child care. Lawmakers have long relied on families being too busy and overwhelmed with day-to-day survival to ask for more from them.
We are not going to quit asking for our tax dollars to serve our families and strengthen our communities. While universal child care is the ultimate goal, in the meantime Congress must keep the current funding for ARPA to avoid the harmful stabilization cliff.
Lisa Binegar
Chaseburg
Mother Forward 