Funding for Wisconsin child care providers is promoted during La Crosse event

A program called, “A Day Without Child Care,” was held Monday in La Crosse. It’s intent was to draw awareness to the need for child care services.

Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Jill Billings visited Sprout Childcare in La Crosse to promote continued state funding for those types of programs around the state.

“We know that 54 percent of families actually experience that they live in child care deserts,” Billings told reporters, “so they don’t have child care in their neighborhoods or in their communities, and often when they do have child care, for some working families, they just can’t afford quality child care.”

Billings wants to see the “Child Care Counts” payments for care providers keep going in Wisconsin. It’s a monthly payment program, which is scheduled to expire early next year.

Sherry Picha, a co-owner of Sprout, said the economy would be hurt if child care wasn’t available to many people.

“Would you be able to see your doctor, if all the doors were closed today, and you had a surgical procedure that you needed to do?” Picha asked. “A doctor would not be able to be there, because they would need to care for their children.

“Same thing with any kind of appointment that you have. Our employers would see a huge earthquake through all of their businesses, if they had employees not show up today.”

Staffers from Sprout were joined at the La Crosse news conference by workers from Little Feet and Helpful Hands and Coulee Children’s Center.