Episode 09: The child care challenge for Minnesota's workforce

Solving the child care issue

Minnesota is experiencing a child care crisis that directly affects workers and employers. Marnie Werner, director of research for the Center for Rural Policy and Development, joins us for this episode to help us understand the child care issue and how it varies across the state. She shares insight from research she led on the topic for the Center.

"In the Twin Cities, the issue is really getting affordable daycare. Outside the Twin Cities the issue is getting any kind of daycare."

— Marnie Werner

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Episode host(s)

• Christy Kallevig, Extension educator
  University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Community Vitality

Guest(s)

• Marnie Werner, director of research
  Center for Rural Policy and Development

Related podcast

Episode 10: working to address the child care shortage

Resources

• Use the Community Vitality page as your go-to resource for help in your community work.
• Visit the Center for Rural Policy and Development for articles, recordings, and research on a variety of topics important to understanding issues in greater Minnesota.
• Read the report "A quiet crisis: Minnesota's child care shortage", as well as the recent update to their report to learn more about this issue.
• See if you live in a child care desert in this map from the Center for American Progress.

Other research on the issue of child care

• Legislative Task Force on Access to Affordable Child Care (January 2017) (PDF)
• Greater Minnesota's Child Care Center Wage & Rate Survey Results (Minnesota Initiative Foundations, March 2017) (PDF)
• Workforce of Today, Workforce of Tomorrow (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, June 2017)
• It's time for an ambitious national investment in America's children (Economic Policy Institute, April 2016)