finding affordable and quality Child Care is a challenge for many westconsin families but parents don't have to navigate this issue alone the Wisconsin shar's Child Care subsidies program offers financial assistance to eligible parents struggling to afford quality Child Care Diane Rico her early childhood education Ambassador with Milwaukee succeeds joins us to discuss the available resources how to apply for assistance and where to state ranks regarding Child Care affordability thanks for joining us thank you for having me great so what do Wisconsin shares and how do you qualify for it Wisconsin shares is a subsidy for families in Milwaukee to help cover the cost out of pocket for child care for their children um there is an income limit so it is based off your income um and whatever the families are awarded depends on that like say a family that is closer to the limit of that income will get funded less than a person whose needs might be greater um so I can't give out an exact number of how much families get but it is out there for families to take advantage of what are some of the barriers families face when applying for subsidies I think some of the biggest barrier right now would be lack of awareness um not enough people know about this um it is not promoted enough it is not talked about enough and another barrier would be lack of knowledge of how to navigate the system for example right now everything is done on the internet through a smartphone or a computer um many people don't know how to use that you know we want to think well everybody knows how to navigate smartphones but that's not the case especially given the surge of immigrants um in the last few years we have people with language barriers that might not understand this the system to where they can even understand and the language to apply so how expensive is child care I you know you hear all these stories that it's very expensive H how expensive is it it's expensive um nationally Wisconsin ranks among the top 20 and of the most expensive in the nation um we have other major cities spending no more than six or 7% of their medium household income whereas in Wisconsin our families are having to spend upwards to 16% of their medium household income uh which yearly comes to about close to $112,000 and that is only for one child now taking into account families that might have more than one child needing um child care that amount increases significantly is that because Wisconsin charges more for child care compared to other states or why is it so upside down here I don't think there's a cut off um I don't think the amount that centers are allowed to charge is moderated by any um agency so it varies a lot a lot of things come into place as to how much centers can charge um some will be whether they're accredited through a certain agency um like NY is one of them um and then the ratings kind of play a role into how much of a high quality per se the centers are which would kind of give them a right to charge a little more than a home based Child Care Facility we talk some about rankings like a highquality child care agency compared to a lower child care rating what's the difference how how is a parent supposed to know which one is high quality versus which one is not I think that would greatly depend on the Family's needs um for example maybe as a parent I would value more a smaller sized classroom or group compared to a nationally accredited bigger facility that will in turn have bigger classrooms and my child might not be getting the same one-on-one attention um as far as high quality every in order to be an educator you know you have to have the education you have to have the the schooling for it so I believe that high quality education can be cannot be kind of just based off saying this is a high-end you know brand new facility and then turn down the smaller facilities with the wrong idea that they may not be able to provide what you're looking for um because some providers decide to spend their funding or their money in other areas rather than a brand new building gotcha you know so I think I I think it would vary greatly depending on the need of the family how did you become an ambassador I became an ambassador because I know of the struggle I am raising a family myself and I decided to go back can pursue uh my education as raising my children um so often times it took took me many years a lot of starting and having to quit um because I didn't have child care available and in order to qualify for a lot of the child care subsidies or whatever you have to be enrolled in an approved activity um sometimes the educa or the place where I was obtaining my education from wasn't considered an approved facility so therefore I wouldn't qualify for child care subsidies um and it's hard paying for child care out of pocket on top of paying for my schooling when I'm not making any income myself um so I personally know the struggle what what what are you hearing from uh lawmakers saying that do you hear weird stories about maybe you shouldn't have a child if you can't afford it tell us about some of that we've heard it uh you know as to a lot of people in politics would say well nobody told you to start a family you know you made that choice or deal with it when it sadly I mean why does it have to come to that why does it have to come to people having to decide whether they want to pursue having a family and decide between that or a career gotcha uh which in turn it's it's happening and it's affecting majority women because we all see it you know and part of it as the way our society is structured women are seen as the caretakers so say you're out of college you have a career start working once you get married and you decide to start having a family you know it's often assumed that well the wife stays home with the children you know many times leaving their career gotcha um so yeah I understand well thanks a lot for joining us and this is a issue that people should look into thanks yes definitely thank you for having me appreciate it