An innovative childcare solution in rural Minnesota

This Minnesota Public Radio story is out of the far northwestern Minnesota town of Warren, population 1605.  Here's the lede:   

City leaders in the small town of Warren knew they needed to do something when the number of in-home day cares dwindled to three, and the only day care center in town was full and still struggling financially.

“So as community leaders we said, ‘OK, we need to sit down and we need to dig into this problem. What is the solution?’” said Warren city administrator Shannon Mortenson.

That search started in 2019, but the child care challenge started much earlier.

A private child care center that opened in the town of 1,600 in 2014 was in financial trouble and ready to close a couple of years later.

That was when accountant and parent Lindsey Buegler joined other parents trying to call attention to the issue.

"It was either get involved and beg and plead with people to somehow keep the day care open or we would have had to move," she said.

"There were seven of us directly involved with the center that would have had to move. Seven families that would have had to move had the day care closed,” Buegler recalled. “So I would say that's huge for this small city of Warren to lose seven families."

The child care center became a nonprofit and is still open. Buegler is a board member, helping manage the Little Sprouts center.

Buegler was “floored” when voters narrowly approved the half-cent sales tax in November.

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Business leaders pushed hard for the tax. They understood how a shortage of child care was limiting economic growth.