Child Care (MN Governor's Race)

Child Care Costs

In 78% of Minnesota households, both parents work. Yet, Minnesota has one of the highest child care costs in the country. The average cost to have your infant in a center in the metro area is $340/week. That’s $17,680 a year. And, that’s the average. For in-home daycares, the average is $188.00/week. In rural areas, the average for a center is $216/week which equals $11,232 a year. The in-home average in rural areas is $142.00/week. Keep in mind, these are the averages for one child.

Our oldest is now 6. When he was an infant, we sent him to an in-home daycare and it cost $215 a week which included food and diapers. Our youngest just turned 1. We sent her to a center and it cost us $389 per week and didn’t include diapers. With the addition of before and after school care for our oldest, we were spending $200 more per month on child care than we were on our mortgage. I am home with both of them now for the summer which saves on these costs.

Child Care Shortage
We are lucky that we had options for care. There is a severe shortage of child care in much of the state. Between 2006 and 2015, the number of licensed in home child care providers decreased by 27% across the state which translates to a loss of about 36,500 spaces. Rural areas are the hardest hit by this, and in some cases, entire communities are without access to care. Infants are the hardest to find care for which has serious implications for women who would like to return to the workforce after having a baby. Low-income families and single-parent families are especially hard hit as low-income families are less likely to have paid leave.

There are many reasons for this, but one is the increased amount of regulation that the Minnesota Association of Child Care Professionals says has nothing to do with the safety of the children in their care and is causing caregivers to leave the profession. In May, the Minnesota State Senate unanimously passed a bill that gave more leeway on staff qualifications and allowed more leeway on staff to child ratios if some infants or toddlers were only part time. Another that passed unanimously was an exemption from a training rule that was intended to apply to centers that cared for the developmentally disabled, but was applying to all centers. A third bill passed with a handful of no votes that reduced what was needed for background checks of minors present at in-home day cares. They formerly needed to be fingerprinted and photographed. The bill made it so they would just need to provide a legal name and birth date. According to the Minnesota Association of Child Care Professionals, the minor fingerprint bill was one of the number one regulations causing providers to leave the industry.

Child Care Assistance Program & Fraud
The Legislature hasn’t been discussing changes to state reimbursements that help low-income families pay for care. One of those programs would be the Child Care Assistance Program which is a program out of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. It provides financial assistance to low income families to pay for child care so they can seek employment or education that will lead to employment. It serves more than 30,000 children currently. It is dependent on providers registering for the program to seek reimbursement. However, some providers see the reimbursement rates as too low to cover costs and decline to enroll eligible children for the subsidized care. Eligibility varies based on the size of the household.

Recently, there has been an outcry on how easy it is for providers to defraud the government under this program. According to daycare provider, Becky Swanson, a parent brings the child to the childcare center or the childcare provider and parent signs the child in, but they don’t leave the child. The parent’s signature allows the provider to claim that day as a day of care. So if you’re a parent of two, and if your provider charges $150 a week per child, the provider claims $300 for two children for the week even though they were not in daycare. As of May, there were 10 open investigations into daycare fraud. The state has closed 13 centers since it formed a fraud investigation unit in 2014.

Child Care Tax Credit
The Minnesota Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit is also intended to offset child care costs. But, you may only claim up to $3,000 for one child and up to $6,000 for two or more. The statewide average for one child is $16,120 for center care and $8,528 for in-home care. To be eligible for the full credit (which is 35% of those claimed expenses), you have to show documentation that someone else cared for your child and you must make less than $50,000. The credit phases out if you make more than $50,000 and you become ineligible if you make more than $62,000 for one qualifying dependent, or more than $74,000 for 2 or more qualifying dependents.

Paid Parental Leave
The final issue that falls under this umbrella is paid parental leave. The United States is the only developed country in the world that has no guaranteed paid leave. 1 in 4 American moms have no choice but to return to work when their child is just 2 weeks old. 87% of parents have no access to paid leave through their employers. Each additional month a parent has paid leave, the infant mortality rate goes down 13%. Americans have the highest infant mortality rate in the world. Countries that enact paid family leave see infant mortality rates decrease. They also see a decrease in high school dropout rates, a rise in college attendance, and higher incomes at age 30. Babies whose mothers don’t have paid leave are less likely to nurse or be taken to the doctor. When they become toddlers, they have more behavioral problems and score lower on cognitive tests. While I am citing national numbers here, this is an issue that has yet to be taken up federally and will not be any time soon as it an issue that is historically voted down under Republican leadership like the United States currently has. Therefore, it becomes a state’s issue.



Here is where the candidates stand:

Jeff Johnson-R: Candidate Johnson’s sister, Jodi Olson, runs a daycare out of her home in Detroit Lakes. That’s all I could find that was even remotely related to the above issues.

Erin Murphy-D: Candidate Murphy says, “The lack of affordable, accessible child care is holding too many Minnesotans back from entering the workforce and it’s having adverse effects on our local economy.” She says she will work with communities all over the state to ensure quality childcare that is available and affordable, but has not outlined a specific plan, as of yet. Following her endorsement from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), she stated, “As governor, I’ll continue to stand up and fight for livable wages, access to paid sick time and paid family leave.”

Tim Pawlenty-R: Candidate Pawlenty is focused on the child care fraud issues more than anything else. On his website, he cites, “childcare providers allegedly defrauding the state of a massive amount of money and sending some of that money to terrorists overseas” as a reason “state government needs to be held more accountable.” In 2003, Governor Pawlenty’s budget doubled the copays for low-income families receiving state-subsidized health care under the Child Care Assistance program.

Lori Swanson-D: Candidate Swanson has been criticized and protested for not catching and prosecuting the day care fraud. I couldn’t find her stance on any of the above issues, but Matt Pelikan, the current DFL-endorsed candidate for Minnesota Attorney General (Swanson’s current job) slammed her for not providing paid parental leave to her staffers.

Tim Walz-D: Candidate Walz plans to increase the Child and Dependent Care tax credit that is available to low-income families in an effort to help cover the costs of child care. He also plans to increase the income eligibility limits so that more people are eligible for the credit. He plans to fully fund an forecast the Child Care Assistance Program. He says he will remove red tape and fees that make opening and running a daycare challenging. He plans to open a Child Care Innovation Center that will offer seed money, training, and technical assistance to those who want to open a child care program. Additionally, he supports progressive paid leave policies so that parents can stay home to welcome a new member of the family. Candidate Walz is the only candidate to have child care as an official part of their platform.