Tag: child care

By Marnie Werner, VP, Research & Operations Ready for a silver lining? So much of what we hear about the pandemic is doom and gloom, but as a new report we released last month on workforce and job vacancies showed, rural Minnesota is sitting at the crossroads of two important trends that have created a ...

Today marks the start of the 2021 MN Legislative Session. A session that will likely be very different than any other legislative session since it will begin and likely remain an online affair. Our CEO, Julie Tesch got an opportunity to chat with Scott McMahon, the Executive Director of the Greater Minnesota Partnership about the ...

By Marnie Werner, VP Research Over the last few years, I’ve been digging a lot into the child care shortage and the difficulties it’s causing for parents of young children around rural Minnesota. One problem in particular for working parents with children in both daycare and preschool is getting their kids from one place to ...

By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research & Operations The beating heart of what we do here at the Center for Rural Policy and Development is our research—research pure and simple on policy issues that matter to rural Minnesota. It’s the beginning of the fiscal year for us, which means a new start to not just ...

Results of a statewide survey of child care providers April 2019  By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research & Operations For a printable version of the report, click here. For a two-page summary, click here. The Center first started looking into the matter of the child care shortage in 2015. In the process of this initial ...

By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research & Operations About 18 months ago I was sitting in front of a state senate committee on child care, talking to them about what I had found while researching the child care shortage for the previous two years. When I was done and others were invited to come up ...

EXCERPT: “The current state of Minnesotan day cares is anything but child’s play. And, when child care is one of the top issues facing Minnesota’s labor force, the industry’s decline in recent years could mean rough sledding for the economy if a solution isn’t reached effectively and expediently. As executive director of the Greater Minnesota ...

EXCERPT: “As more and more licensed child care providers close up shop, worsening the child care shortage, lawmakers are considering a number of reforms geared toward reversing that trend. Sponsored by Rep. Ami Wazlawik (DFL-White Bear Township), HF1685, as amended, would allow child care providers to use a substitute caregiver for up to 300 hours ...

What is “Letters to the New Governor”? A compilation of essays giving insights and recommendations by experts from around the state writing on issues of importance to Greater Minnesota. They comment on the ideas and motivations behind some of our most difficult policy questions facing our state, including the region’s changing demographics, the rural economy, the ...