Rural families struggle to find and afford child care; the profession struggles with low wages and is undervalued

Rural families from all walks of life struggle to find
adequate child care. (Shutterstock photo)

Finding a child-care provider in a rural town can be akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, reports Michael Johnson of Ag Week. "In greater Minnesota, there is a need for more than 42,000 child care spots, according to First Children's Finance, a national organization focused exclusively on a sustainable child care supply. . . . Most [child-care facilities] are not at capacity due to staffing shortages that don't allow them to have all the children they could have. With just 13% of Minnesota centers responding to a First Children's survey, results showed a shortage of 600 staff members. . . . Trisha Lien, a First Children's Finance business development director, said the reason behind the shortage is that staff are historically underpaid and undervalued."

For rural families, two incomes "are often needed to offset the instability of farm income. About 89% of U.S. farms are small, and households operating these farms typically rely on off-farm sources for the majority of their household income, according to a 2021 USDA Economic Research Service report," Johnson writes. "Lien explained that there is a drastic disparity between the metro area and rural Minnesota in how much centers can charge for child care. Lien explained that a rural child care provider might only charge a quarter of what a [metro] provider charges. Even so, what rural families are able to spend often isn't enough."

"According to American Progress, nearly two-thirds of rural families live in a child-care desert. Low-income families living in rural areas will end up spending 12.2% of their income on child care a year," reports Kate Robinson of KEVN-Fox in Rapid City, S.D. Billy Mawhiney, from the South Dakota Afterschool Network, told Robinson: "A lot of times families choose maybe one of the parents to stay home or work part-time, so that way after school they can have that flexibility. But we’re also seeing more remote work and more flexible work. . . I think all the business industry is really realizing that they have to be flexible in order to have workers."

Johnson writes, "Lien is finding some companies are hopping on board to help contract slots to pay for childcare for their employees. Others sponsor a child or donate funds to a local center, knowing that having that care in the community is a value to them. . . . An example of a company planning to provide childcare directly to their 1,800 employees is Hormel in Austin, Minnesota, makers of SPAM. The city of more than 24,000, is experiencing a shortage of approximately 531 full-time child care slots, impacting families' abilities to live and work. . . The company broke ground on May 3 for a community child care center."

Robinson reports, "Childcare remains one of the most underfunded programs in the country." Without meaningful change and resources, families with children will continue to struggle to find solutions. Lien told Johnson: "The last study showed that childcare providers in Minnesota, on average, make less than dog babysitters — dog walkers."