Fox Valley Initiative (FVI) held its monthly forum on June 2, 2025 at Freedom Project Academy in Appleton, hosting Rep. Joy Goeben (R-5th District) in a wide-ranging discussion of the child-care industry in Wisconsin.
Rep. Goeben was joined by Eric Balza (right) of Child Care Resource and Referral, Inc., who gave a PowerPoint presentation on the challenges that working families face in paying for child care and the challenges that the child-care industry faces in finding adequate staffing and complying with increasing regulations. The industry struggles with a profit margin of just 1–2%.
The child-care industry nationwide has been temporarily supported with COVID-era federal funds, $770 million in Wisconsin alone, given to 5,000 state child-care providers. That stabilization fund runs out after June 2025. This has led to serious concern that many of the current child-care providers will then need to shut their doors.
Governor Tony Evers has requested $480 million over two years from Wisconsin taxpayers to continue to fund the child-care industry. Rep. Goeben, in her work for the Committee on Children and Families, has written multiple bills as alternatives, including deregulating the industry to allow more capacity, incentivizing business owners to provide child-care for their employees, and increasing the tax credit for child-care.
The audience asked multiple questions, demonstrating a desire for free-market solutions to the child-care industry issues rather than continuation of another example of inefficient government dependency.
The next FVI public forum will be held on Monday, July 14, 2025 from 6:30–8:00 PM, again at the Freedom Project Academy, 750 North Hickory Farm Lane, Appleton. Laura Ackmann will present her ongoing work with the Winnebago County chapter of the nationwide Moms for Liberty, a group dedicated to educating and empowering parents in the oversight of school boards and other government entities influential on our children.
Learn more about the upcoming meeting, and FVI generally, at its website: www.foxvalleyinitiative.com.
