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The Shepherd Express asked Tricia Peterson, owner and director of Future All*Star's Academy in Juneau, Wisconsin, to explain what she is seeing in her community through the eyes of the children in her childcare center as their families struggle through this COVID recession. Tricia wants Senator Ron Johnson, one of the Senate’s biggest opponents of providing additional COVID relief to struggling families to understand the challenges with which regular working people are currently facing. Though there are tens of thousands of families in the Milwaukee area who are in the same difficult situation, we wanted to highlight rural poverty in a red county in hopes that Ron Johnson will quit spending his time defending Donald Trump and start defending the struggling families that he was hired to represent.
I run a child care center in Juneau and this past year I’ve seen firsthand the hurt families are facing right now. We take care of children from across Dodge County and the stories they tell would stop anyone in their tracks. This isn’t an issue that just impacts rural counties or urban counties. It hurts all of us. I’ve never spoken out publicly like this before, but I can’t stay silent and watch while so many of my friends and neighbors continue to struggle. We need help.
But as child care providers, we can only do so much. And what bothers me the most is that our elected leaders like Senator Ron Johnson don’t seem to understand what families are going through.
When the pandemic first started, it hit the childcare center hard. We lost nearly half our income in the second quarter of 2020. Many of our providers were already struggling to make ends meet. Looking at our finances, we had no choice but to lay off five employees. That was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. Some were single parents to their children living paycheck to paycheck. They didn’t know how they would keep a roof over their heads.
While we knew things were bad, as the year went on, you started hearing the stories from parents and even children themselves. “I had to skip dinner last night so I could feed my kids.” “My parents can’t pay for our house, so we might get kicked out.” I’m always reminded of how much children pick up. They know that times are tough, and they’re scared. It breaks my heart.
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The center tries to help where we can. We’ve coordinated with local schools to see if they could help with lunches. So many of our children depend on free or reduced food, but there are still those who fall through the gaps. My staff and I began bringing in our own food to help those who had nothing to eat. This is our reality in 2021 America.
While Wisconsin families are facing these hardships, imagine my surprise when I learned that late last year, Senator Ron Johnson stood up in the Senate to block direct relief payments to millions of Americans. Hundreds of thousands of those payments would have gone to Wisconsin families like the ones who send their children to our childcare center. I thought others would make clear to our Senator that we need the relief those checks would provide. So when I saw him once again vote against relief checks being considered by Congress earlier this month, I couldn’t stay silent.
The fact is we need the $1,400 relief checks that politicians from both parties support. I don’t think Senator Johnson has ever had to choose between paying rent versus paying his cellphone or medical bills. I hope he never does. But real Wisconsin families are facing those choices right now. We aren’t a budget line or numbers in a spreadsheet. These are families with children who are going hungry because of the pandemic. Their mothers and fathers have lost work or have been furloughed. They’ve used their savings to try and stay afloat, but a year is a long time.
This March will mark the one year since the pandemic started. Wisconsinites are incredibly generous. We’re kind and tough. We help one another and look out for our neighbors. I want that same generosity in my senator. I want someone who will fight for our state.
I don’t care if you voted for Ron Johnson or not. I don’t care about your politics. Families in Wisconsin, the same families that send their children to my childcare center with an empty stomach, they need help. And we need a senator who will look after Wisconsin’s families and support direct relief checks.
So, to Senator Ron Johnson: you were elected to serve Wisconsin. Stop blocking relief checks. Help our families. The children we look after are counting on you.
