AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Child care providers across the country are facing heightened pressure and scrutiny as they open their doors after the holidays. The Trump administration froze federal funding last week that was meant to help low-income families pay for child care. The suspension came after a viral video claimed without evidence that there is widespread fraud in Minnesota day care centers run by Somali Americans. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has acknowledged fraud is a serious problem in the state, but he said that this particular issue has been politicized.
To find out more about how that freeze is affecting providers, we turn to Maria Snider. She's the vice president of the Minnesota Child Care Association, an advocacy group, and director of a child care center in St. Paul. Welcome to the program.
MARIA SNIDER: Hello. Thank you so much for having me.
RASCOE: So how is this freeze in federal funding affecting the center that you operate?
SNIDER: Well, my center is about - a little over half of the students are accessing child care assistance in order to attend. And there's a lot of fear and worry from parents, who are just really baffled as to how this could be happening. One mom said to me yesterday, there's no fraud here. I'm working hard every day. And I honestly am a little at a loss for how to respond because I know that to be true as well. And so we're really hoping that there can be some kind of course correction here where funding can continue for hardworking families who really need the services.
RASCOE: Well, what does this mean for those families whose kids are in centers that receive these funds? So they're not able to pay for daycare centers right now?
SNIDER: Yeah. So it's really hard to say how it will play out. We're used to getting paid about three weeks after we deliver services, so we have a little bit of time before we know the full impact. But if parents can't access child care assistance to pay tuition, then those children will not be able to attend child care, which would mean that their parents can't go to work. A lot of families are living paycheck to paycheck. You know, one paycheck can mean they can't make their rent payment. They can become homeless very quickly. It's a really scary situation.
And it's also really scary for providers because that can mean job loss. It can mean having to close down classrooms or entire programs. And it can really have a reaching effect not just on children who are accessing child care assistance, but on the children and families who attend programs where that's part of the funding structure. Because of how child care operates, if even, you know, 10% or 20% of your income goes away, that can mean closing down a classroom. That can mean closing down a program. So I think the impacts of this are going to be extremely widely felt. Just from working with providers over the years across the state, most people do accept child care assistance, and that is part of their program structure.
RASCOE: Would your child care center be able to survive without these subsidies?
SNIDER: Right now 33 of the 51 children are on child care assistance. If those funds were to stop, I don't know how long we can continue operations. We would certainly be looking at closing down classrooms, potentially laying off employees. That's over half of our enrolled students.
RASCOE: As I mentioned, federal officials are citing these allegations of fraud in child care to explain the funding pause, and they're pointing specifically to Minnesota. We should mention there is some history here. There was a big pandemic relief fraud scandal in the state. But what do you make of these recent claims about fraud in child care?
SNIDER: I want all funding that's meant to go to children to go to children. There are wait lists for child care assistance programs in our state, so it's really important that these funds are used and used well. Anyone that is committing fraud should most certainly be held accountable and should not be able to continue operations and continue receiving public funds. It just seems so intensely cruel and unfair to be pulling the rug out from thousands of families and child care providers for the potential bad actions of a few.
RASCOE: The Trump administration is requesting more data and verification before funding returns. Do you have any sense of when that might happen in Minnesota? Have you talked to officials there? Are they providing this data and verification?
SNIDER: We received an email from the state. I believe it was a mass communication to all child care providers on January 2, saying what the additional information is that's being required. As far as I can tell, the things that were in the email were things like our license numbers and our full names and addresses, which the state already has, of course. That's how we're licensed to operate here. Honestly, your guess is as good as mine what else they would want, because my experience with this program is that it already requires a really high level of documentation to prove the services that are being provided.
RASCOE: Ultimately, when do you hope to see this resolved? You said you have about three weeks before you start seeing the impacts. If you don't get that payment in three weeks, what would be the next steps? Like, is there a deadline for when this will have - like, start having real impact on these children in Minnesota and elsewhere?
SNIDER: So I'm not a state or government official, so I don't want to speak with too much authority on it. What I saw in the email from the state is that it's due by January 9, and then we'll see, I guess, if the federal government accepts that or not. If they don't and if child care assistance is really cut off, that's going to be devastating. It's going to mean people are going to lose their jobs - parents, early childhood teachers. Programs might be at risk of closing because of the crisis that's been in child care for decades. It's an underfunded industry, so something like this is just really like kicking us when we're down.
RASCOE: That's Maria Snider, vice president of the Minnesota Child Care Association. Thank you so much for joining us.
SNIDER: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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