- [Laura] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home & Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or a Memorial service.

- [Narrator 1] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top at priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.

- A chance to help parents find childcare while also educating students.

And the Republican view of the Illinois tax plans in the Cities.

(upbeat music) Illinois Governor J.

B. Pritzker unveiled his $45 billion 2022 budget calling for some tax freezes, property tax relief, debt payments and investments in education, policing and other government agencies.

In a moment, we talk with a top Republican in our area about the party's response, but first, childcare.

It's proving to be one of the biggest hurdles facing the jobs economy across the country.

And here in the Cities, Western Illinois University is instituting new initiatives that could help both parents and students.

Now, for one thing, Western has taken over an empty office space in downtown Moline to offer some much needed childcare help.

We talk with Dr. Lindsay Meeker, who is helping spearhead this partnership between the city, developers and the university.

Just how desperate our families right now seeking childcare.

I mean, it's getting to be a critical position.

- We know that nationwide, the number one reason families are siding is the inability to get back into the workforce following a pandemic is just...

I mean, it's the number one, it's childcare.

We can't go back to work because we don't have childcare for our children.

Especially infant to toddler range is extremely difficult because even places that have four-year-old preschool, a lot of times don't have those birth to three options in a way that are necessary for people to get back to work.

Q2030 along with Skip-a-Long Family Services and United Way did a study prior to the pandemic, noting almost a lack of like 7,000 childcare spaces in the Quad Cities.

And that was before the pandemic.

And we know we've lost childcare options since then.

So we know that problem has only grown.

And how that data kinda came about was we looked at the number of children ages birth to five, the number of childcare slots available and did the math.

And we came up with approximately 7,000 short.

Now of course not everybody sends their child to a community-based childcare or public preschool option, but that sets the stage for a really big shortage in our area.

We know that we have waiting lists upon waiting lists for the programs that we do have.

I have personally interviewed some parents in the last couple weeks and I'm able to share a little bit, but one parent that I interviewed indicated that she has had to send her small children to live with her mother during the week because she cannot find childcare.

So in order to get back to her public teaching job in public education in our community, she's had to send her child somewhere else and that's with a parent.

So she has that option, but I think that gives us a picture of how desperate the situation is right now.

- And it's being recognized by Western Illinois University in a number of different initiatives, one being announced just recently the expansion into the enterprise lofts in the heart of Moline.

That's what's got you really excited right now among other things.

Why is that so important?

- That is really exciting for me right now.

It's been about a two-year project of planning and thinking and trying to figure that out, and lots of help from community mentors.

So we are looking to open that for childcare slots, which is truly desperate, but also in addition to that, a workforce development site.

So in the meantime and over the last couple years, even prior to my arrival at Western, Western has shown up to be part of the workforce development kind of solution.

And so we started with the Gateways Grant and that grant was for both students served in McComb and Quad Cities.

And what that grant did was allow early childhood workforce to be able to come back to school, to grow their degree pathway so that they could reach teacher certification.

And then the state came in and said, "Hey, this is a huge problem and we're going to bring something to the table."

So right now there's a grant out there for early childhood workers to be able to get their tuition paid for through the Equity Access Consortium out of the state of Illinois, there's actually legislation that's accompanying that, and they can go back and get their degree and that cost is covered.

And that was one of the huge barriers because the pay in early childhood is just ridiculously low.

The other advocacy point we need is pay equity, but now they're able to upskill without the barrier of the cost.

And Western is working alongside Black Hawk College to be able to provide a complete pathway for our Quad Cities' students in that workforce kind of group of people so that they can get all the way to their PEL, which is their Professional Educator License.

We're offering online classes, we're offering in-person mentoring or zoom support mentoring.

We are working with both school districts and community childcare partners to recruit.

So that is a huge effort happening right now.

Why the center is so cool is that's going to be a great space for people to be able to get hands-on experience within their programs, whether they're in a nontraditional program, traditional early childhood program, which has been welcome back to the Quad City campus this fall.

So I'm so excited to be a part of that.

As well as some of our high schools, our high schools are currently looking at the teacher shortage, one of those being early childhood, but we have lots of teacher shortage areas across the state of Illinois, including EL bilingual, science educators, early elementary education.

All of those pieces are having shortages.

So our local high schools are coming to the table and we're partnering with them as well.

Earlier in the fall, we did a field trip with Moline High School "Grow Your Own Teachers."

We also met with the early childhood programs students out of the East Moline School District.

I think this site can provide a really neat option for us to look at things like CDA on the way, which is like stepping high schoolers into that first certification for working in early childhood.

I think it gives opportunities for after school hands-on experiences maybe even during the day, depending on the student schedules.

So I think it opens up lots of workforce development options.

I also plan to utilize it with parent engagement and family empowerment.

So we'll be able to use that space to have an early childhood parent mentor program.

- It also, interestingly enough, has a Spanish bilingual learning component to it.

Why is that a part of it and why is that so important?

- Well, so our community is very multilingual and we're blessed with that.

What a gift to have in our community.

Many of our school districts serve multilingual learners, East Moline, Moline Rock Island, you're looking at approximately 25% of their kindergartners being multilingual learners and across maybe 16 to 20 languages even in some of those districts, one of our high incidents, languages that occurs outside of English is Spanish.

And we're looking to think about how do we provide a multilingual experience and which community would make sense to try to serve in that way?

And right now it's Spanish in our community.

So we're looking to do that.

The multilingual experience itself is we know that when children are exposed to a different language, when they're little, that actually different parts of their brain turn on, and it does all kinds of fantastic things.

So for all students, the bilingual brain is just better.

It's a gift.

But in addition to that, we want to be able to serve our multilingual learners and their families in an equitable way in birth to five spaces in the Quad Cities.

And at WIU, we feel like we can create a good model for that.

- Now, Western hopes to open the facility in the enterprise last by August, if I'm not mistaken.

- That is the goal.

We are hoping to do that.

We are currently working closely with our team at WIU to get this space procured.

We have an LOI in place.

So letter of intent for that lease space, we are working with funders.

Right now we have some funds identified already within the university, and I think we can do it.

- Well, are you seeing parents actually already contacting you saying I gotta get in?

- After some of the media pieces came out, we of course do have parents asking that question.

And as soon as we have the ability to have a wait list or sign up, we will.

It is important for us to note that we're really looking to partner closely with organizations that can help us make this space accessible.

So we definitely wanna look at childcare assistance program pieces like that because we know that the demographic hit most critically during the pandemic was our linguistically, culturally and income diverse family.

So we will be making that a priority in enrollment, and that's real important to us to serve that community.

- Do you see this as just a seed like just a beginning?

This isn't the end all, what do you see for the future as far as Western's concerned especially with childcare education?

- I think Western has a track of providing lab site, early childhood space for growth.

For example, our McComb site already has a lab school.

That's been up and running for a long time.

It looks a little bit differently than ours will because we really believe in designing around the community in which we're going to be serving.

And so they do look differently, but that success has already been there as a model for us.

We look to get this program going and I think Christie Vendor would agree if she talks about it too.

The dream right, would be that we get this program full and going.

And then we look for the next childcare desert spot to open another one up.

Right now, I'll just be excited to get this one open, but yes, we have had conversations about how do we continue to serve the childcare deserts in our community, and this is a good start for us.

- Dr. Lindsay Meeker with Western Illinois University.

In a moment, the Republican response to the Pritzker budget plan, but first, warming up during the February chill, Laura Adam says there's plenty you and your friends and family can do during these last weeks of winter as you head out and about.

- [Laura] This is out and about from February 11th through 17th, everyone is welcome to the Sweetheart Dance on the 11th at the Rock Island Fitness & Activity Center, or join Ballet Quad Cities for their Valentine gift in "Love Stories" at the Outing Club the 11th and 12th.

Skellington Manor is the location for "Five Card Murder" and "Interactive Murder Mystery" on the 11th.

And what do you do when you mix alcohol with a bunch of love Lauren comedians.

Join "Shots Through The Heart" a Valentine comedy show on the 11th.

And on the 12th, it's Bottoms Up for Less presenting "Bloody Valentine" both at The Speakeasy or celebrate with your Valentine at the "Factory of Fair Haunted House" the 11th and 12th.

Lonesome Fugitive, Iowa's Honkiest Honky Tonk Band plays at Rhythm City Casino the 11th while improvisers create an entirely new Shakespearean comedic masterpiece in "Shakespeared" at the Black Box Theater on the 12th at 7:30.

"Karkinos: The Living Proof Exhibit Opera" takes place the 12th at 7:30 at the Bartlet Performing Arts Center.

And February is National Skating Month.

Join the fun the 13th at the Rivers Edge at 2:30.

"Time For Three" the pop Americana classical trio perform at the Bettendorf Performing Arts Center on the 17th.

While the drama "Proof" is performed at Galvin Fine Arts Center the 17th and 18th.

And auditions for Tuck Everlasting take place at the Spotlight Theater February 12th and 13th.

For more information, visit WQPT.org.

- Thank you, Laura.

Governor J.

B. Pritzker says the darkest fiscal days are behind the state, saying bills are being paid down.

A rainy day fund can be replenished.

Some taxes can be frozen, and greater investments can be made.

Though Republicans applaud some of what the governor said, they say it needs to be more than just a one year election gimmick funded by federal dollars that will soon go away.

We talked with Representative Norine Hammond, a Republican of McComb as the state and Western Illinois University wait to see what will stay in that budget.

What was on first blush, your opinion of the governor's address?

- Actually, Jim, at first blush, I was encouraged to see that a lot of the focus of the budget was in the area of education.

K-12 education has some significant increases as does higher education.

And unfortunately for many, many years, that's not been an area of focus for this administration and previous administration.

- The other big headline of course, were the tax changes, the freeze on the gas tax and grocery tax, and changes for property tax where taxpayers would get some money back.

Republicans have welcomed that, but I've heard two different things.

First off, they say it's short term 'cause it's one year only.

And the other is that it's an election year gimmick.

- Well, I never refer to a property tax freeze or a property tax break as a gimmick.

The devil is always in the details for these things certainly.

And as far as the gas tax and freezing that, how does that affect our road fund and the projects that are already in the pipeline?

And is there going to be a enough money in that fund to complete those projects?

So those are all questions that we have to ask.

We can't just take everything at face value, certainly, but I would also say that this is the governor's plan.

This is his outline and how he would prefer to see dollars spent.

But the reality is that it is the general assembly that does those appropriations.

- One of the things Governor Pritzker was touting is he said, Illinois will end this fiscal year with a 1.7 billion surplus.

The first of its kind in more than 25 years.

Let's be honest, that's unheard of in Illinois history, it seems at least in modern times.

- Well, it is unheard of.

And I also heard the governor say that skeptics will say this was because we received funding from the federal government.

I don't consider myself a skeptic.

I consider myself a realist.

And the reality is we received over $8 billion from the federal government, and much of that is to bolster up the state's economies.

And it has certainly done that for Illinois economy.

I don't think that is something that we can ignore.

Those are dollars that are going into our revenue streams and helping to paint this picture that the governor has painted for us.

- Also, there was money that's going towards the pension fund that is so underfunded in Illinois.

And also addition of almost a billion dollars towards what's often called a rainy day fund.

I mean, fiscally, those are areas that Republicans certainly wanted to see.

- Absolutely, and I am not going to suggest that any of this is a bad idea.

As a matter of fact, I think that many of these ideas coming from the governor and his staff are very laudable.

My concern is if we promise this money and we promise it for this year, will we be able to sustain that budget next year and the year after that?

And in fact, make increases caused by inflation and be able to pay our bills.

So a rainy day fund is a terrific idea.

We haven't seen that since Governor Edgar was in office and paying down our pension debt, which is upwards of 130.

Absolutely, those are things we need to be doing.

- What do you see as your greatest priority right now?

- Well, one of my greatest priorities right now is I have some real significant concerns over the money that is owed to our Unemployment Trust Fund.

We have about nearly $4 billion, about three and a half billion in debt to our Unemployment Trust Fund.

The governor has been whole hopeful that the federal government would just say, oh, forget it.

You don't know that.

That's not going to happen.

Not in my lifetime or anyone's lifetime.

And so we have enough money in what is left of the eight plus billion dollars that we received from the federal government to pay down the most significant portion of that debt in the Unemployment Trust Fund.

It is allowable under the Federal APA regulations that we can use that money to do that.

And that in fact is what we should be doing.

That is an absolute priority.

And the reason is among others that if we don't do that, then the taxes on Illinois employers will go up significantly, significantly to make up for those three and a half billion dollars in debt.

- I know two things.

One is you're very interested in higher education because you serve the district that includes Western Illinois University.

- Yes.

- And you also said that it really is the details of the budget.

What do you see right now, as far as Western is concerned?

I mean, as you well know that those two years of freezes back a couple years ago were devastating to the university system in Illinois.

And also we've seen declining enrollment on campuses throughout the state, including Western.

How do you see Western right now?

Do you see it stabilizing and growing, or do you still see concerns?

- Actually, I see it stabilizing and growing, and I give kudos to President Wong for that.

He has been very, very active in recruitment and it has a real focus on retention for our students.

And I think that's one of the areas that oftentimes gets overlooked.

You can tout at the beginning of the year or beginning of a semester, we have x number of students, but do you still have that number at the end of that semester?

And so retention is equally as important as recruitment, but President Wong is doing a terrific job.

He is focused not just on the McComb campus here, but also the Quad City campus.

And I think that as we look at what's going on, as far as jobs in this economy, in this state, Western has so much to offer.

We all know that there is a significant loss in the area of law enforcement.

Western has one of the number one law enforcement schools across the nation.

Agriculture is another area that is ever expanding.

And Western is certainly known for that as well as their business and supply chain.

And so those are areas that I see Western certainly having an edge over many other universities.

- One other thing that the governor had pointed out is that he wanted to see an increase in PEL grants and an increase in MAP scholarships, a 200 million increase in MAP scholarships, and also target some of that towards healthcare education to increase the number of healthcare workers.

I would assume that you applaud that as well.

- Absolutely, and here's the thing, we have talked for years about the MAP Grant funding and underfunding the MAP grants.

And so if we can direct more funding, and I think the governor was around $600 million for MAP grant recipients, that would be huge.

And folks need to understand that the reason for that is MAP grant funding is available to Illinois students that go to school in Illinois.

And so that gives us a distinct advantage on keeping our students, our Illinois students here in Illinois to go to school.

And the other part of that is back in 2019, I'm part of a higher ed working group, and it's a bicameral, bipartisan and by choice that we sit on this working group and we put in place a program, the acronym is AIM HIGH, and it's a scholarship program, again just for Illinois students at our state universities.

And so that is specific to our public universities.

And that's another area that is also very helpful for our students, because it's key that we keep our Illinois students here in Illinois for higher education.

- 'Cause the governor had mentioned that it seems for too long higher education was ignored.

Do you think that Illinois has learned something over the last few years that cutting in the area of higher education actually in the long term is bad?

- Well, I would hope so.

And with high unemployment as it is now, particularly in the healthcare field, this is to have this be a focus and change direction a little bit, if you will, and actually give higher education, the dollars that it needs to educate our students, I think is huge.

'Cause I'm very active in long term care and senior issues and those kind of things.

And many of our long term care facilities, their staffing shortage is significant in the area of nursing and certainly in CNAs, many of these temp agencies, the cost that these facilities have to bear to put in place the staff that they need is unbelievable.

So anything we can do to put more folks into that career and it's a great career by the way.

And more and more of that is what's gonna be needed in the future.

- The governor said when it comes to the budget and I was wondering what you thought of when you heard this, he said, "Seats at the grownup table will be off limits to those who aren't working in the public's best interests."

Did that anger you at all?

- I guess anger is one word.

I was ashamed for him.

I don't think that kind of rhetoric is necessary because at the end of the day, I would hope that we would all have seats at the table and it would be one table, not a grown up table and a child's table, but the table and that we would all be there and be able to express what is needed in the areas that we represent.

This is a very diverse state.

It's diverse in our population.

It's diverse in our occupations and certainly the needs across the state.

So as I often tell my colleagues, I appreciate the districts that you represent and the needs that you have, but make no mistake.

You don't have the market cornered on poverty.

- Illinois State Representative, Norine Hammond, Republican of McComb.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on the scenes.

- [Laura] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home & Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or a Memorial service.

- [Narrator 2] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.