This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Chad Dunkley, CEO of New Horizon Academy.
The Minnesota-based child care provider last month announced an expansion into Wisconsin, with a facility opening in October 2026 at Southwest Health, a not-for-profit community health provider in Platteville. The planned school will have capacity for 140 children, from infants to kindergarten age.
While the program will be a benefit for employees at Southwest Health, the child care program will also accept other kids in the community, according to Dunkley. Southwest Health is building the facility, he noted, adding that’s one of the biggest expenses for starting up a child care program.
“Because they absorb that expense, we’re able to charge lower tuition rates for employees of Southwest Health, but also to the community of Platteville,” he said.
He discusses the company’s efforts to expand into more areas with child care shortages, where it opened facilities in other states, as well as how the Platteville expansion came together.
The conversation also highlights the broader challenge of child care “deserts” across the country, and some of the trends driving this shortage.
“There’s been for decades now a shrinking of family child care, that’s really the primary source of child care, or had been, in smaller population areas,” Dunkley said. “And that’s really what started to create the shortage.”
He said center-based care models like what Southwest Health is doing can help create more options for families, even with the higher licensing requirements and labor costs that come along with them.
“Being a place where teachers can stay means that we have higher compensation and better benefits, so people can choose to work for New Horizon Academy and make it a career,” he said. “And so it’s very difficult to make the economic model work, to figure out what families can afford, but also what are the wages and benefits we can pay so we can have a really high-quality program.”
Dunkley explained 90% of brain development occurs before age 5, noting the early experiences that kids have during those years are “absolutely critical” to their growth.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
