In House District 17A candidate: Tim Miller, a Q and A published in Gatehouse Media publications in and near the West Central Minnesota house district, Miller, R-Prinsburg, said:
Another problem we are facing in rural Minnesota is a lack of daycare options. This is 100 percent due to over-regulation by the state. I have worked and will continue to work to reduce these regulations in order to allow new businesses provide this important service.
Miller seems to be the only person in Minnesota to think that over-regulation is 100 percent the lack of daycare options in rural Minnesota.
While regulations are an issue for home-based day care providers, rules are not the only problems facing providers. In May, Christopher Magan reported in Minnesota’s day-care providers are quitting in droves. Here’s why in the St. Paul Pioneer Press:
Lawmakers have expressed alarm about a growing number of day care providers who’ve closed or left the profession, decrying low pay, burnout and frustrations over the regulations.
The number of child care providers in Minnesota has dropped in recent years, from 11,000 in 2011 to about 8,000, making it tough for parents to find daycare. Child-care advocates say more providers are considering leaving the business if nothing is done. . . .
Two of the Senate proposals passed unanimously and the third, Kiffmeyer’s bill to make background checks for providers’ children less intrusive, was approved 59-5. Altogether the bills make modest changes to some oversight and licensing requirements.
The bills modify rules and regulations put in place to ensure children’s safety in day cares after an uptick in deaths and injuries. Lawmakers said Monday many of the more onerous requirements came from rulemaking by the Department of Human Services. . . .
Minnesota lawmakers have spent the past two years studying and debating ways to make affordable child care more accessible. Last year, a task force released a 57-page report filled with recommended spending and policy changes.
The legislation approved Monday addresses some of those changes, but not all. Lawmakers still need to work on affordability issues and find ways to attract more providers.
Pay for care providers is also a big challenge. A recent study by the Minnesota Early Childhood Initiative found pay for teachers and assistants ranged, on average, from $10.26 to $14.65 per hour.
That will likely mean putting new resources into the state’s Child Care Assistance Program, which helps low-income families pay for day care, but rates are so volatile that some providers avoid participating in the program.
Apparently, regulations aren't 100 percent responsible for the problems--instead they combine with low financial return and burnout.
Session Daily's Melissa Turtinen reported in Child care access subcommittee hears emotional testimony from providers:
The subcommittee didn’t discuss any bills. Instead, it heard emotional testimony from current and former child care providers who shared their struggles, highlighting reasons they believe there’s a child care crisis in Minnesota that not only impacts providers, but Minnesotans who don’t have access to affordable child care.
A common theme from the providers who testified is problems with understanding and meeting the Department of Human Services requirements for licensed family child care providers. Providers cited training requirements that don’t fit into what they do, such as those required by the Positive Supports Rule, and the additional administrative work that’s required.
In addition to rules, providers also mentioned low pay, long hours and physical demands as reasons they left the business, according to a survey of former licensed family child care providers who closed between January 2015 and January 2017.
Miller may be more on target than some of the rest of his caucus, regardless of his blaming one single cause.
Other Republicans are placing the blame on other factors. In a new video, former daycare provider Mary Franson, who chaired the subcommittee, R-Alexandria, also blames a "forced unionization" effort that was rejected by providers in early 2016 (she doesn't mention that two year plus gap since the end of the organizing drive) and day care fraud sending millions to terrorists.
Examining the latter theory, Dave Orrick drove a semi through the notion in MN child daycare cash going to terrorists? Let's unpack this. Essentially, one has to accept the claim that all cash remittances Somali people are sending to their families in Africa are from day dare fraud, and that the money gets turned over to third parties--and that the Dayton administration winked at the fraud. Okay then. In fact, the legislature and administration set up a fraud unit which discovered, investigated and shut down fake operations.
Steve Green, R-Fosston, sees a different culprit: Mark Dayton's desire to establish voluntary pre-K education. Forum Communications. Nathan Bowe reports in Green, Branden square off in District 2B debate:
. . .I believe that the end goal was to get people into the universal pre-K, and have the daycares inside the school systems, instead of the private folks who could watch those kids, care for them, the way their parents wanted them cared for," he said. "We tried this year to pass some bills that would deregulate, and give them more authority to move back into the system that was working, but they were vetoed. We will try again next year ... to get private daycares back in business."
It's a conspiracy! Read more about the governor's pre-K programs here.
Perhaps Greater Minnesota's Republicans can come up with a single united narrative. Over-regulation is a problem, but not the only reason home daycare provider. Perhaps adequate funding for families seeking daycare providers might enter the conversation. We'll hold our breath.
Photo: Tim Miller knows the only barrier to daycare providers' flourishing in Minnesota are regulations.
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