Amanda St. Hilaire Biography
Amanda St. Hilaire is an American investigative reporter. Amanda St. Hilaire is an investigative reporter with a passion for public records and open meetings. She has been part of the FOX6 team since July 2018. Her love for journalism began when she was at the age of 12.
Her parents took her to school board meetings, which they attended to advocate for students with disabilities. Amanda took notes, asked the board members questions after the meetings, and wrote stories about what happened. She did her first investigative report at the age of 15.
Amanda St. Hilaire Age
Her birthday and age are still under review.
Amanda St. Hilaire Husband
The gorgeous investigative journalist is married to Steve and the couple is happily married.
Amanda St. Hilaire Net worth
Her net worth is still under review.
Amanda St. Hilaire Early life and education
Amanda was raised in New Hampshire but later her family moved to Pennsylvania. After she graduated from high school, she attended Syracuse University, where she graduated one semester early with a dual B.A. in broadcast & digital journalism and international relations.
Amanda St. Hilaire Career
Amanda is an investigative reporter with a passion for public records and open meetings. She has been part of the FOX6 team since July 2018.
Her love for journalism started when she was 12. Her parents took me to school board meetings, which they attended to advocate for students with disabilities. Amanda took notes, asked the board members questions after the meetings, and wrote stories about what happened.
Just a few years later, she did my first investigative report at the age of 15. Her parents announced they were moving our family of eight from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania. Amanda promptly dug up every fact she could find about the area, made arrangements to live with a friend’s family, and presented my findings to my parents. They congratulated her on her efforts, informed her that she was still required to move with them and her five brothers, and suggested she channel her energy into journalism.
Amanda St. HilaireA few weeks after graduating, Amanda began her first television new job at WTOL11 in Toledo, Ohio. Toledo will always have a special place in her heart because it’s where she met her now-husband, Steve. It’s also where Amanda officially started her investigative career. Through public records, she was able to expose flaws in the state’s school vaccination tracking system and uncover the City of Toledo fraudulent food expenses.
She eventually returned to Pennsylvania to work at ABC27 in Harrisburg, where she was a founding member of the station’s first investigative team. Amanda also started a weekly “Restaurant Report” segment, along with the market’s first television station podcast, called On Deadline. She continued to hold local leaders accountable through reporting on public expenses, nursing home violations, costly towing practices, efforts to skirt laws governing transparency, and gaps in the Capitol’s system for reporting sexual harassment.
Amanda St. Hilaire Articles
Need childcare?
MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin parents are struggling with long wait lists, high costs, and shrinking options as they try to find daycare for their children, a FOX6 investigation found.
Public records detail the growth of “child care deserts” and other factors putting a strain on families; state leaders say solutions will require creativity.
“Everywhere we called had a two-year wait list”
The Smith family didn’t originally plan on spending so much time in the car. When Theresa found out she was pregnant with her first child, she acted quickly to ensure a spot at her work’s on-site daycare.
“Before I even told my boss I was pregnant, I was calling down to put a deposit on a potential spot,” Smith said.
When she switched jobs, Smith had two weeks to find a different childcare option.
“We had a lot of high-quality recommendations,” Smith said. “But everywhere we called had a two-year wait list.”
Smith found a center she liked, but it was far away. She tried an option closer to home but pulled her daughter out when she started having concerns about supervision and safety.
That’s how Smith found herself driving nearly 20 miles and 30 minutes out of her way, each way, to the original child care center her family had liked.
“Even then, they had filled her spot right away, because like every good place, there is a wait list,” Smith said. “We could only get her back in three days a week, and I had subsidized two days a week with a friend to watch my daughter, and I was pregnant with our second.”
Smith said her family has made the routine work, and she considers the drive worthwhile. But when her older daughter starts attending school in the opposite direction of her younger daughter’s daycare, she will need to figure out a new solution.
“It’s challenging,” Smith said. “High-quality, available options are limited.”
Public records show parents across Wisconsin share Smith’s conundrum.
Supply and demand
“Parents are stretched,” said Erin Arango-Escalante, Wisconsin Department of Children and Families administrator of division for early care and education. “We know that.”
Data from the Department of Children and Families shows a steady drop in Wisconsin licensed child care providers — from nearly 9,000 in 2010, down to slightly more than 6,000 in 2015, to just over 4,000 currently.
This trend has created more “child care deserts,” which are ZIP codes consisting of 30 or more children that only have one child care slot available for every three kids.
The Department of Children and Families said 38% of Wisconsin’s more than 700 ZIP codes were child care deserts in 2018. In 2019, that number has jumped up to 47%, making nearly half of Wisconsin’s ZIP codes child care deserts.
“Unfortunately, we do see an issue,” Arango-Escalante said. “And this is an issue not just in Wisconsin, but in all states.”
Arango-Escalante said licensed child care providers are closing because it’s too expensive to operate and too difficult to attract qualified teachers.
“Eighty percent of a budget, roughly, is about staff,” Arango-Escalante said. “Folks aren’t making a lot of money — between $10 and $13 an hour, oftentimes with no benefits. There’s an issue of supply and demand there.”