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Area to Smith: More money needed for child care

Free Press - 4/6/2018

April 06--MANKATO -- If Congress wants to fix the child care shortages in rural areas in Minnesota and across the U.S., it needs to approve more funding for child care providers and parents alike.

That was the message parents, providers, economic development and educational experts gave to U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and her staff Thursday during a roundtable on the state of child care at Minnesota Valley Action Council in Mankato.

"There's not enough money going in the right direction," said Marnie Werner, interim director for the Center of Rural Policy and Development.

Parents described issues finding spots for their children at in-home or center-based providers. There's not enough providers in the state -- Minnesota went from about 11,500 to less than 8,500 child care providers over the past decade -- and those that are around either aren't as accredited or can't serve parents with flexible work schedules.

Angela Obidiegwu described how she decided to quit college and stay home to raise her third child until he's 3 years old, then start to find part-time work while her husband provides for the family. She's concerned she won't be able to go back to school until her children are older, as there aren't enough providers around to watch them while her husband is at work.

"If I want to go to school, I have to work around his schedule which will not allow for me to finish in the time that I would like to," she said. "And also, a time when my children are sitting with someone who I trust and not just someone who's available and cheap right now."

Another parent, Sara Nett, spoke to state lawmakers about child care regulations last month in an effort to help providers throughout Minnesota. She moved to Mankato with her family in 2016 and is planning to open Sweet Alice Floral Shop in St. Peter.

She decided to wait for two and a half years as a stay-at-home mother because of difficulties finding child care in South Dakota. When Nett moved to Mankato, she contacted 11 providers before she found one that could take her daughter.

Nett estimates she and her husband spend about 27 percent of their income on child care alone.

"It's more than our mortgage," Nett said. "It's more than our student loan payments. It's more than our car payments. It's overwhelming to parents."

Providers fare little better. Industry workers are often paid at or near the minimum wage and often live in poverty. State data shows child care staff made an average of $9.77 in Minnesota in 2017, while rural staff were paid slightly less.

Centers or programs such as MVAC's Head Start often need professionals with bachelor's degrees or better in early education, and such low pay often discourages would-be preschool teachers from staying in the industry for long.

"It seems like there's a cycle of poverty in child care," Haylee Blauert, a teacher at Here We Grow Early Childhood Center in Mankato, said. "You can see it in every aspect. You can see it with the parents, you can see it with providers, you can see it in the communities and the business model."

In-home providers often work on thin profit margins, especially if they accept state or federal child care subsidies -- which can be paid up to two months after the fact. Centers such as Here We Grow can obtain working credit lines to help with their cash flow, but providers say that doesn't change the fact most providers like Blauert live at or below federal poverty standards.

"I stay in poverty, but I love (child care)," said Blauert, who has a master's degree in education. "But I don't know if I'll always be able to stay in that position because of how much I get out of it, which is unfortunate."

Several people pointed out how difficult start-up and maintenance costs are for providers. And without providers, rural economies will have a tough time growing if workers can't find child care.

Teri Steckelberg of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation compared child care to agriculture, in that both industries need help from the federal government.

"There's been times over the years where the government has stepped in and subsidized the farming industry, and we need to look at how can the government step in and subsidize the child care industry," she said.

Smith said after the meeting the stories she heard reaffirms her commitment to securing more funding for child care.

She has sponsored a bill with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, to expand child care assistance programs to ensure no family that makes under 150 percent of their respective state's median household income pays more than 7 percent of their earnings on child care. Minnesota's median household income is about $63,200 a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Congressional Budget Office hasn't released an estimate on how much the bill would cost to implement, but it would more than double the amount of children who could qualify for child care assistance and provide more funding to hire and train providers.

"We have to support child care at a much more high level than we have in the past," Smith said.

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(c)2018 The Free Press (Mankato, Minn.)

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