Why a Wisconsin Child Care Provider is Now Closing after 18 Years

She is the face of the fight for investment in Wisconsin’s child care system. But as a provider and early educator, Corrine Hendrickson is now making the painful decision to close her family child care business at the end of August. Hendrickson has devoted 18 years to helping prepare children for kindergarten and life beyond at Corrine’s Little Explorers in New Glarus. She joined Matenaer on Air to share her decision. 

Johnson called her a “health care provider” multiple times before suggesting the solution to the child care crisis was for “moms like you to stay home.”

Hendrickson on a recent exchange with U.S. Senator Ron Johnson

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Listen to the complete discussion here:

“I finally am realizing I need to put my family and myself first too,” Hendrickson says. “There just wasn’t enough funding in the state budget for me to stay open without outpricing the families I serve.”

Hendrickson’s decision is a direct result of the inadequate investment in Wisconsin’s child care system. Though the state allocated $360 million for child care in the latest budget, advocates say it falls far short of the billion-dollar need.

“When you break down that money — spread across thousands of programs, children, and teachers — it’s not nearly enough,” Hendrickson explains. “Meanwhile, inflation has gone up, and the costs to stay open have only increased.”

She also points to inside issues, including a reliance on underpaid labor. And she reveals the suggestion by some lawmakers to lower standards for child care teachers.  

Hendrickson shares a personal exchange she had with U.S. Senator Ron Johnson while visiting his office in Washington, D.C. She says Johnson called her a “health care provider” multiple times before suggesting the solution to the child care crisis was for “moms like you to stay home.”

“I asked if I should do it for free,” she recalls. “He didn’t respond. That told me everything.”

Beyond her personal story, Hendrickson highlighted the broader workforce shortage plaguing child care providers. And centers with open slots can’t fill them because there aren’t enough trained teachers; plus, those who do the work often make far less than what’s needed to support their own families.

“We have 33,000 empty child care seats in the state. It’s not because families don’t need it, but because there aren’t enough teachers to staff centers,” she says. “And the so-called solutions, like hiring 16-year-olds with no training, are not solutions at all.”

Still, Hendrickson remains proud of her work — especially her inclusion of children with special needs and the “alumni” who return to her in the summers.

“I’ve helped raise dozens of kids, and I’ve taught parents how to navigate parenting too,” she says. “But this system depends on women doing everything for nothing. And I’m not willing to be part of that anymore.”

You can consider her story a call to action. A call to voters, parents, and legislators for an understanding that child care is not just a personal issue. It’s infrastructure. It’s education. It’s workforce development. And without real investment, Wisconsin will continue to lose providers like Hendrickson.

“If we really care about kids,” she says, “We need to start taking care of the people who take care of them.”

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