Greetings,  We welcome your engagement in efforts to harness and align our collective assets to advance local, regional, and state action in service of a re-imagined early childhood care and education system.  With this newsletter we aim to educate and inform our community about the need for systems change and collectively engage in advocating for action.

Last week, Governor Evers released his 2021-23 budget proposal, which includes a $140 million investment in early care and education with a focus on:  Expanding access to child care for infants and toddlers, which is the age range for which there are currently the biggest gaps in access; and Supporting early educator compensation, which is a key component of ensuring access to quality care for kids and families.  You can read more about this child care proposal here. And you can find more information on the entire proposed budget here. Now the budget action heads to the State Legislature. For a handy description of the full state budget process, click on the image below.

So what’s next for child care advocates? Now’s the time to make sure your elected representatives and other community stakeholders know why child care matters to you and why it’s important that we expand access to quality, affordable child care for families and support the early education workforce. You can find who represents you in the Wisconsin legislature here and a video on effectively communicating with lawmakers here.  And stay tuned, we’ll continue to provide updates, resources, and opportunities for you to raise your voice as the budget process moves forward.

 Know someone who could benefit from this content? Please forward them this email and ask them to sign up for our newsletter here.