ST. PAUL -- Twin Cities child-care centers often receive more than twice the state aid as those in western Minnesota, and rural providers want to change that.
"We have to do lots of grant writing and begging to the community," Tammy Anderson told the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee Thursday.
The West Central Initiative's John Molinaro later added: "There isn't a child-care center now in our nine counties that could operate without subsidies."
The two came from Fergus Falls to testify for a bill by Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, to raise state subsidies for rural child-care centers and home-based facilities.
Molinaro provided the committee with maps showing child-care centers in the northwest, southwest and central parts of the state charge an average of $100 to $131 weekly per child. Centers in the Twin Cities and southeast Minnesota get $225 to $257.
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Most home-based child care facilities in western Minnesota receive $87 to $101, while those in the Twin Cities may get up to $155. Lanning said his bill would raise the $87 to $100.
Molinaro said those rates set by the state for children it subsidizes tend to be the maximum rates child-care centers can charge anyone.
"All we are doing is somewhat reducing the gap," Lanning said.
Rep. Fran Bradley, R-Rochester, said he has serious reservations about the Lanning bill, but agreed to discuss it in the finance committee he controls.
Anderson, director of Children's Corner in Fergus Falls, said low charges they collect mean many child-care centers can only afford to pay workers $8 an hour.
"We are competing with Burger King because they pay more and have benefits," she told the committee. "How sad is that?"
Molinaro said urban child-care centers do better under a complex state subsidy formula which allows them to make a profit, while rural ones must have the subsidy or close, he added.
The formula's impact on rural areas was one factor leading to the closing of two Moorhead centers, forcing parents of 175 children to find new care in a community with just 62 openings, he said. Some parents are forced to quit their jobs because they can't find child care.
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Anderson said her center, which probably will lose $18,000 this year, depends on the subsidies.
"If we charged what we needed to charge, we would close," she said.
It is one of just two child-care centers in all of Otter Tail County.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Don Davis at (651) 290-0707
