Minnesota child care advocates rally against federal cuts
Members of the Head Start program and Kids Count on Us participate in the Protect Our Kids rally at the Minnesota State Capitol Monday, May 12, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
It's been a disappointing year for Minnesota's parents of young children and the advocates hoping to secure more investments in child care.
Across the state, child care centers are shutting down, exacerbating the shortage of day care spots. Meanwhile, the cost of care continues to climb; only Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts have higher average infant child care prices. Child care workers in Minnesota earn on average just over $15 per hour, often less than they could make at Target or a restaurant.
Now, a plan by President Donald Trump to cut funding is threatening the already-precarious child care system.
Teachers and advocates for Head Start, the federal program that provides subsidized child care to low-income families, gathered at the Capitol Monday — with hundreds of preschoolers in tow — to protest proposed Head Start cuts and the lack of state action to counteract them.
More than 12,000 Minnesota children could lose their care if Head Start funding expires at the end of September.
Advocates with Kids Count On Us — a child care advocacy group affiliated with the religious organization ISAIAH — rallied for state and federal spending on child care in conjunction with National Day Without Child Care events around the country.
'Minnesota needs to be bold about raising revenue to fund the things we need, like a fully funded child care system, so it is affordable and accessible for all families,' said Reneé Olsen, who runs child care centers in Barnum and Willow River.
The threats to Head Start come on the heels of an especially difficult six months for child care.
Although Gov. Tim Walz says he wants to make Minnesota 'the best state to raise a family' — and Vice President J.D. Vance fancies himself a beacon of pro-family public policy — neither the state nor the federal government plan major investments in child care anytime soon.
In Washington, Republicans are rolling back programs that provide child care to low income families, at the behest of Vance and the world's richest man, presidential advisor/donor Elon Musk. Vance co-authored an essay in the Wall Street Journal in 2021 arguing against child care subsidies; instead, the government should reward parents who choose to stay at home and raise children, Vance wrote.
More than 80% of stay-at-home parents are women.
And in Minnesota, there's not money in the state coffers this year to make up for the potential loss of federal funds. The state is already spending more money than it's bringing in, and with tax increases off the table for Republicans, Walz and legislative leaders are looking for ways to cut spending.
November's budget forecast, which predicted a $5 billion deficit in 2027 and 2028 if current spending trends continue, ended hopes of wide-scale state-level investment in child care before the legislative session began.
State Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, said a tax on social media companies, which was included in the Senate's recently released tax bill, could help pay for investments in child care. But in the House, which is tied 67-67, Republicans have vowed to vote against any tax increase.
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