Commissioner Macker named finalist in national ideas challenge

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The NewDEAL announced today that Teton Board of County Commissioners Chair Natalia Macker’s idea to increase affordable child care and educational opportunities have made her a finalist in the 2021 Ideas Challenge. The initiative is a competition among rising and innovative state and local policymakers to propose the most effective solutions on an array of issues.

After evaluation by a diverse panel of judges, Macker’s Community Care Sites idea is a finalist among submissions for the Rebuilding Jobs and the Economy category. The initiative addresses Wyoming’s shortage of child care options required to support the workforce, especially women.

Macker’s solution co-locates child care facilities with community college and agriculture extension offices in communities to create a network of Community Care Sites that support affordable child care for parents who wish to return to school or work, as well as the growth of the early education workforce required to ensure quality, sustainability and livable wages.

“I am thrilled to be named a finalist and to be included in this group of talented leaders across the country,” Macker said. “We need practical solutions that can be acted on quickly, and that’s why these solutions proposed by state and local leaders across the country are so important. The challenges facing the Wyoming economy and working families—especially working women—are real and need attention.”

In addition, the initiative is designed to attract businesses to the state and assists with the often-prohibitive infrastructure costs of building or renovating a site into a code compliant child care facility.

“State and local leaders face enormous challenges as they work on the frontlines to rebuild from a persistent pandemic, close the long-standing inequities highlighted by COVID-19, and ensure our communities emerge with more economic opportunity for everyone,” said NewDEAL CEO Debbie Cox Bultan. “The Ideas Challenge shows how a group of innovative state and local officials are rising to the occasion of finding solutions. Commissioner Macker and her fellow finalists have made proposals that, together, set an important governing agenda for the country to follow, including to make the most of critical federal funds from the American Rescue Plan and to help our nation make good on the promise to build back better.”