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Legislature to audit childcare

State set to investigate Wisconsin Shares after program allegedly wastes millions

The Wisconsin Legislative Audit Committee will be taking a closer look at the Wisconsin Shares program as a result of media claims that the program is wasting millions of dollars.

Over the past few weeks, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran multiple investigative reports regarding fraud and abuse in the program, which provides childcare funding for approximately 34,000 low-income families throughout the state, prompting the committee to take action.

The $340 million a year taxpayer-funded program was last audited fully in 2001, but because of recent press, legislators are scheduled to vote at a hearing on Feb. 18 to audit it again. Wisconsin’s $5.4 billion projected budget deficit has led many to worry about misspending in such a highly funded program.

“A lot of state money goes towards Wisconsin Shares, so it should be honest and remain accountable,” said John Anderson, spokesperson for Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, a member of the Audit Committee.

In an article released last week, the Journal Sentinel reported cases of abuse of the current rules to receive funding. The report led citizens and politicians alike to voice their concern regarding the program and its recent practices.

One case found the state-approved childcare funding for 85 hours a week, despite that the children were in school all day, according to the Journal Sentinel’s investigation.

“We received letters from a large number of legislators who were concerned about the program for a wide variety of reasons,” said Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Audit.

Many of the instances of abuse may stem from vague rules that allow for parents with questionable proof of employment to receive funding.

Senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle seem to agree that serious reform of the Wisconsin Shares program is necessary.

“With the way the program is now, there is a lot of incentive for childcare providers to overstate the number of hours they work or the number of kids they have so that they can have increased profits,” said Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend.

Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Audit, added with the current economic situation, the state cannot afford to waste even a dollar of taxpayer money, prompting even more scrutiny and careful use of funds by tightening the program’s rules.

Many, including Grothman, are particularly concerned with uses and abuses of the program within the Racine and Milwaukee areas.

“Sixty percent of the money goes to Milwaukee County, but only 16 percent of the population is there. Obviously, there’s a lot of crookedness going on in Milwaukee County,” Grothman said.

Ultimately, legislators seem optimistic about this program’s ability to recover from such issues and become stronger in future years. However, many have stressed that they are nowhere near to finishing their investigation.

“This is just the beginning. At this point, we’re only looking at the most obvious cases of abuse of this program,” Grothman said.