Sprout’s Sherry Picha on Wisconsin’s looming childcare crisis

Sherry Picha, owner of Sprout Childcare on the south side of La Crosse, joined La Crosse Talk PM on Tuesday to discuss the dilemma Wisconsin facilities and families are in, after childcare funding was cut out of the state budget. 

La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

Last week, at 2:30 a.m., Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee voted to end what’s called the Child Care Counts program — a $340 million funding program that allowed facilities to stay in the margins.

Picha talks about the repercussions from that — the crunch that puts, not just childcare facilities in, but also families and other businesses. We also talk about what the next steps should be and how important childcare centers are for those first years of a kid’s life.