At the Wisconsin Policy Forum’s annual Salute to Local Government in November, keynote speaker and La Follette School Board of Visitors member Bob Lang inspired the audience with his reflections from more than five decades of public service. The event also featured the inaugural La Follette/Gladfelter Award for Innovation in State Government to recognize innovative approaches to problem solving at the state level.
This year’s La Follette/Gladfelter Award went to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) for their significant efforts to stabilize the child care industry and services during the pandemic. DCF’s grant program (Partner Up!) supported partnerships by offering funds to businesses to purchase slots at existing regulated child care providers. Another grant program (Dream Up!) focused on building child care capacity through a collaborative community approach, providing funds to 37 communities to help create new child care businesses and enhance existing ones. Meanwhile, the Child Care Counts program was created to stabilize and sustain the industry, providing monthly payments to regulated providers to support staff through wage increases and parents through tuition relief and stabilization.
“The La Follette School is honored to become part of this annual celebration of the thoughtful and inspiring work happening every day in the public sector across our state,” said La Follette School Director and Professor Susan Webb Yackee. “While we work to train students with the skills and knowledge to become future leaders, we also want to champion our alumni and colleagues who are already leading the way.”
The award was established with a gift from Lloyd D. Gladfelter, who spent his career as a government reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He wanted to honor public employees whose innovations led to the improvement of federal, state, county, or municipal public services in Wisconsin.
