EXCERPT: “In Olmsted County, there is an estimated shortage of 1,082 licensed child care slots, according to recent information gathered by the Center for Rural Policy and Development. In Mower County, the number of licensed child care slots would need to increase by a staggering 82 percent to meet the estimated need. Fueling the shortage is a sharp decline in the number of family child care providers in the state, said Marnie Werner, interim executive director for the Center for Rural Policy and Development. ‘You can see that the drop off in family child care providers and the capacity that they provide is just on a steady slope downward, and that’s a real problem in Greater Minnesota because so much more of the child care in Greater Minnesota is provided by family child care,’ Werner said.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2ALSgK1
