EDITORIAL: Child care critical to towns' future

Franklin, Minnesota, is similar to many other towns in the southwestern part of the state.

Located in southern Renville County, it has 510 people, it's rapidly aging, and many of its young people have fled to larger cities where the jobs are. It is much like with Cosmos, Stewart, Grove City and other communities in the Crow River region.

It is also home to a child care center that is working to prevent more of its young workers from following their peers to bigger towns.

This past week, Minnesota Human Services Assistant Commissioner Jim Koppel visited Cedar Mountain Cougar Childcare Center in Franklin to emphasize the importance of quality child care, and highlight businesses and communities coming together to address the need for child care.

Cedar Mountain Cougar, which serves 29 children, is doing many things right by partnering with the state to help families who want to stay in Franklin, Mr. Koppel said.

"Without consistent, quality child care, children often struggle and are not prepared to enter kindergarten, and parents often are unable to go to school or work as a result," Koppel said in a news release. "We need to help ensure children are well cared for and educated in safe, stable, nurturing learning environments."

Koppel believes state government's support of child care is critical toward ensuring the economic viability of small towns.

Cedar Mountain Cougar works with the state's Parent Aware program, which offers tools, materials and guidance to enable parents to find the best quality child care and early education for their children.

The center also serves families with low incomes by working with the Child Care Assistance Program. Statewide, more than 16,000 families with 30,000 children are enrolled.

The state also helps young families with child care expenses by providing state tax credits. This year the Minnesota Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton expanded the credit to cover 55,000 families, providing more than 42,800 families an average additional tax savings of $342 a year.

As anyone who follows rural issues knows, support for child care is essential for regions such as southwest Minnesota. Fifteen percent of the state's child care centers have closed during the past five years, and without them, parents cannot work.

Those who stay home are more prone to require other forms of state assistance.

Meanwhile, the Southwest Initiative Foundation's Grow Our Own strategy is using resources to make sure that our region's youngest citizens - from infants to college teens - have every opportunity for a brighter future.

That's critically important at a time when childhood poverty is growing in our region. According to SWIF, 17 percent of southwest Minnesota kids, from infant to age 18, live in poverty ? that's 11,000 young people. Another 23 percent live in low-income families above the poverty line. Combined, this means more than four in 10 kids live in families that are likely struggling to meet their basic needs.

Despite those challenges, SWIF points out that we're operating from a position of strength. We have quality education, safe neighborhoods, many two-parent households, strong support systems and access to enrichment activities.

In Franklin, Cedar Mountain Cougar Childcare Center is using all the resources it can find to provide quality child care while facing challenges that include difficulty in hiring qualified teachers.

The center's executive director, Jody Rose, told Mr. Koppel that the center is thankful for the state programs, but many families in rural Minnesota miss those income guidelines by a few thousand dollars, or there is not enough money allocated to help those who qualify.

Those parents, she said, often end up staying home with their children instead of going to work.

"It would be nice to see Parent Aware scholarships and other financial supports expanded to help more of these families," she said.

The governor and Legislature supported many of those families' futures this year. If they listen to advocates like Ms. Rose, more help could come next year.

The future of many small towns will depend on our state leaders' receptiveness to child care advocates' ideas.