Rural Minnesota is short of child-care facilities

In Minnesota, 74 percent of children younger than 6 come from households where both parents work, higher than the national average of 65 percent. But the state is severely lacking in child care facilities, especially in rural areas, where more than 10 percent of parents statewide, and more than 20 percent of poor parents report that lack of child-care options has prevented them from getting a job in a given year, Adam Belz reports for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. (Star Tribune photo by Glen Stubbe: This early childhood center in Montevideo will be able to serve 12 children when it opens in September)

"As a result, demand for day care across the state is deep, but somehow, there’s not enough supply," Belz writes. "The market for child care in rural parts of the state, especially infant care — isn’t working. Profit margins in child care can be as low as 10 cents per child per hour in the Twin Cities, and rural child-care businesses often operate at a loss."

"In Minnesota, about 186,000 children under 6 live outside the Twin Cities, where families pay about 75 percent of the going rate in the metropolitan area — $132 weekly for in-home infant care, compared to $175 per week in the metro area, according to Child Care Aware Minnesota," Belz writes. "Workers in southwest Minnesota, however, earn only 61 percent of what the average worker in the Twin Cities earns — $661 weekly compared to $1,087 per week in the Cities."

"Of the roughly 74,000 Minnesota children under 6 who live in poverty, only about 31,000 children received state child-care assistance in 2013, but public money is helping in other ways," Belz writes. "The Legislature allocated $46 million for scholarships in 2013, which will help pay for some 10,000 kids to get child care. A federal Race to the Top grant for another $45 million will pay to improve early learning opportunities statewide." (Read more)