For nearly 18 years, Corrine Hendrickson has run a family daycare out of her home in rural Wisconsin, navigating the low pay and long hours because she loves the job.

But at the end of August, before a new school year begins, she’s shutting down Corrine’s Little Explorers for good.

With the disappearance of federal and state subsidies that kept her afloat for the last few years, she says, the model no longer works, and she doesn’t want to have to choose between raising rates or taking a pay cut. She’s not alone: in Wisconsin, other childcare centers are closing ahead of the new school year.

“We’re getting to an inflection point,” she says. “I think enough of us are going to close that they’re going to have to do something.”

Across the country, childcare centers are struggling as they

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