Weekly Fiscal Facts are provided by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. The Wisconsin Public Policy Forum logo can be downloaded here.
Access to high-quality subsidized child care varies among counties
Wisconsin’s two most populous counties, Milwaukee and Dane, have the most high-quality child care providers participating in the Wisconsin Shares subsidy program for low-income families. But when the share of providers in each county with those high-quality ratings is analyzed, a different picture emerges. Dane County ranks third statewide, with high-quality providers comprising roughly 42 percent of all providers in the county. In Milwaukee County, however, high-quality providers account for just 13 percent of the county’s total of 1,130 child care facilities.
Vilas and Bayfield counties in far northern Wisconsin rank the highest in the concentration of high-quality child care providers, with 67 percent and 60 percent of all providers in each county respectively rated four or five stars, the highest ratings. Burnett and Shawano counties — also in the northern half of the state — round out the top five, with approximately 40 percent each.
With the exception of Dane, however, the counties with the highest concentrations of high-quality providers have small numbers of regulated care options, with 10 total providers or fewer. Five counties in Wisconsin have no high-quality child care providers: Crawford, Florence, Kewaunee, Menominee, and Pepin.
This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education.
