Driving out Family Childcare Providers Through Deprofessionalization: The Impact of YoungStar in Wisconsin

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Conversations About Early Childhood Experiences and Programs

Abstract

To (re)consider how care and professionalism intertwine, we began a series of professional development workshops for family child care providers. We intend to analyze data from the workshops alongside a critical analysis of Wisconsin’s quality rating and improvement system (QRIS): YoungStar. Intended to be the magic bullet for the state’s desperate need for child care, YoungStar has had disastrous effects, for which we present three main criticisms: 1) YoungStar contributes to deprofessionalization, 2) it uses carrot-and-stick approach, 3) it is a mechanism of social control and therefore reproduces inequity. By interweaving personal accounts with the economic and political context of the state, this paper illustrates the complexity of being a caring professional in an era of neoliberal regulation.

Authors

• Kate MacCrimmon, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Alexandra Lakind, University of Wisconsin - Madison