In all seriousness, what is wrong with you?

You all sat week after week at your listing sessions across the state and the number one

issue that you heard was child care.

It's the biggest issue, the cost, the lack thereof, and still you did nothing.

Luke Skidmore is founder and co-owner of the Growing Tree, a child care center in New

Glarest, Wisconsin.

She and her fellow carers look after 50 children.

Last week, she confronted Wisconsin lawmakers demanding that they acknowledge the precipice

she and other child care providers in the state are facing.

At the end of this month, $24 billion of pandemic-era federal child care assistance will expire.

Wisconsin lawmakers have chosen thus far to also end child care counts, the state's subsidy

program based on that federal funding.

Skidmore burned with frustration at Wisconsin lawmakers saying that they were ignoring

ample evidence that federal and state funding helped children by helping child care centers

alleviate an ongoing staffing crisis.

And you were given the research that it did work at improving the wages for us.

It went from 10.66 an hour to now we're at 13.

And that's still pathetic.

We pay people to care for our dogs more than our children in the state of Wisconsin.

And it leaves child care providers with little choice, Skidmore said.

Karine Hendrickson, also a child care provider in New Glarest, and also at the hearing last

week, told the assembled politicians that if nothing is done to bridge the gap left

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