Local View: Minnesota must fund child care like it does education

On Monday, May 13, I shut the doors to my child-care center, the Iron Range Tykes Learning Center in Mountain Iron — not because we are permanently closing but because we do not want to permanently close. My child-care center and three others on the Iron Range took part in the national Day Without Childcare. We left the Iron Range with only two open child-care centers that day.

Far from a day off, we headed to the Capitol in St. Paul by bus. An action-packed afternoon included meeting with Gov. Tim Walz, holding a press conference and rally, and making some noise outside the House and Senate chambers. I’ve learned over the last few years that if we want to transform how we do child care in Minnesota and get our legislators and the public to treat it as the public good it is, sometimes we need to get a little loud.

We were heard, which was confirmed just a week later when Gov. Walz reached out asking to visit us at Iron Range Tykes. He spent 45 minutes with us on Thursday, May 21, continuing the conversation, touring our space, and very happily and animatedly reading with the children. He thanked every single teacher. Every. One. Not only for the amazing work they do every day but for stepping on that bus and traveling outside of their normal comfort zone of hanging out with 0- to 12-year-olds to use their voices to elevate their profession as well as the needs of the families and kids they serve. They felt heard, seen, and respected for the incredible care and education they provide for our youngest Minnesotans.

Child care is an investment. It is an investment in tiny humans who will grow to be our future workers and leaders. The teachers who choose to spend their time in human-invested industries like child care deserve to be treated as the professionals they are, with living wages and benefits.

One of my teachers is taking on a third job. Yes, a third job. He wants to save money for a down payment on a house. He needs two jobs just to make ends meet. It’s not that I don’t want to pay him more, I simply can’t, because child care is a business model that doesn’t work. I cannot charge families enough to cover the true cost of child care. That cost is beyond reach for families, by thousands and thousands of dollars.

The actual cost of care for an infant, including equitable compensation for educators, is almost $25,000 a year, according to the 2023 Minnesota Child Care Cost Modeling Report ; it’s almost $10,000 annually for preschool children. But the average payout for infant care at a center is just over $14,000 a year — a difference of about $10,000.

Minnesota has the sixth-highest proportion of working families in the country. At least 74% of Minnesota children have all available parents in the workforce. With so many parents working, child care is a necessity. Yet 26% of Minnesota families are living in places where there is no available child care. Without child-care options, our rural communities will continue to shrink. Parents of children under 12 cannot move to rural communities to live and work without child care, and families already there cannot afford to have more than one child.

Many of the families at my child-care center have only one child, and the main reason is that they cannot afford the child-care costs for more than one child. The U.S. and state of Minnesota standard for affordable child care dictates a family should pay no more than 7% of its household income . Ask your friends or family who have children what percent of their income goes for child care, and you will be shocked to hear how high the number is.

What’s the answer? Public funding. Minnesota spends approximately $14,000 in funding per student in the public school system but mere pennies on child care and early education. The Legislature made strong investments in child care in 2023 that helped us from completely imploding, but now we’re looking ahead to 2025 and making child care affordable for families.

We all benefit from high-quality child care, just like we all benefit from public education. It is time to treat child care like the public good it is.

Shawntel Gruba is director of Iron Range Tykes Learning Center in Mountain Iron.