Bluestem's been boning up on the child care issue in Minnesota, which was summed up fairly well last spring by Nora Hertal in the St. Cloud Times' article Minnesota's 'quiet crisis' in child care: 'There's not a silver bullet'.
There's no one solution for the quiet crisis, but one west central community does seem to have developed a solution that has turned availability of child care into a community strength.
The article is a couple of weeks old, but the news in Swift County Monitor editor Reed Anfinson's article, Daycare could be key to Benson area’s growth, is still promising:
Daycare – Benson’s most attractive asset
With Griffiths on his trip to Benson was Heather Thomson, the brand and business manager for 13 Ways. She also is the executive director of the Alberta School of Business – School of Retail.
It was Thomson, Griffiths said, who saw the most important issue to the community while talking with young women around her age that were struggling with daycare. Griffiths said that without her along, he might not have picked up on the significance of daycare to young people in a community and how intertwined it was with many of the challenges the community faced.
Thomson pointed out that the most important thing to young couples is their children. They’ve read the literature that says the ages from birth to 18 months are the most critical in a child’s development. That makes quality daycare essential and parents will pay a lot, move to new communities, and drive long distances for it.
Benson Public Schools offers daycare for children six weeks to fifth grade. Its extended hours help out working parents with the work schedules, starting at 5:30 a.m. and going until 6:30 in the evening. Swift County, the City of Benson, Swift County-Benson Health Services and local businesses have contributed funds to make the program financially sound.
What makes the program even more unique today is that there is no waiting list to get into it.
There are few programs like it in the state, if not the entire nation. Griffiths and Thomson were impressed with it, especially after a tour of the current facilities. The new facilities to be built in the coming year will be a vast improvement over the current rooms.
It is a program that sets Benson apart from most other communities and gives it a significant asset to market to the young people it is trying to attract to the community to fill job openings, Griffiths and Thomson said....
Are there places in Minnesota where this model will work? Certainly in some communities where public schools are consolidated and the buildings far away, maybe not. Hertal reported back in April:
Demographics and needs vary in every community, Werner said. Schools, businesses, child care providers, churches and other nonprofits are starting to work together on local fixes.
"They're all coming up with different solutions, but they're coming up with solutions that work for them," Werner said.
State lawmakers are also trying to tackle child care problems with money and policy changes. This session alone, state representatives proposed 65 House bills categorized under the topic "Children-Child Care and Facilities."
With the newly Democratic Minnesota House, the mix may change, but we'll watch to see the options put on the table. Simpler regulation for in-home child care? Universal voluntary P-K? Stay tuned.
Learn more about the development of Benson's program in Benson school district takes lead on finding day care solutions for area. Visit the Discovery Kids Childcare website here and Facebook page here.
Photo: These Benson-area kids had fun on Halloween at the school-based daycare center that Swift County, the City of Benson, Swift County-Benson Health Services and local businesses worked together to create. Public photo via Discovery Kids Child Care Facebook page.
If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.
Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.
Comments