ST. PAUL — Low-income families would have access to free early child care and others would see tuition rates capped at 7% of their income under a proposal put forth by a coalition of teachers and early child care providers.
Education Minnesota, the state's largest teachers' union, and ISAIAH, a nonpartisan group of faith communities pushing for racial and economic justice, in a virtual news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 2, rolled out a plan to make child care more readily available to families around the state.
The groups said the state should create a new agency to facilitate the changes along with a set of regional hubs to oversee early child care and education services. The proposal also calls for a new source of revenue to offset the cost of care to families, add more pre-K slots and increase the pay for care providers.
"The cost of the care and education of children in their first four years is crushing too many families across our state. And early deficiencies can affect a child for a lifetime," Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said. "This is a time for urgency, for leadership at the Legislature and for the wealthiest citizens and largest corporations to contribute a little bit more to fund the futures of our littlest learners."
While the cost of child care in Minnesota and the shortage of available slots around the state have been pinpointed by Democrats and Republicans alike as some of the state's most pressing problems, legislators disagree on how to solve the issues.
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But questions remain about what sort of proposal could appease both sides of the divided Legislature and make it to the governor's desk. GOP legislative leaders have said they oppose hiking taxes amid the pandemic and want to see state agencies cut administrative spending.
And a key senator said she had concerns about the proposal growing state government.
"When the only solution to a problem you have is government, you eventually end up with socialism, and that’s what this proposal looks like to me, early socialism," Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, said.
Members of the coalition said they were still working to pick up bipartisan support. And they expressed hope that lawmakers would be motivated to act after the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted further problems for families and child care providers.
"It's a system that was very very very broken before," Karin Swenson, director of Meadow Park Preschool and Child Care Center in Rochester, said, noting state and federal aid had helped dull the impact but hadn't resolved it. "Now it's worse."
Follow Dana Ferguson on Twitter @bydanaferguson , call 651-290-0707 or email dferguson@forumcomm.com
