Duluth Daycares take part in Minnesotas “Day without childcare”.

Duluth, Minn. (Northern News now) – Minnesota organized his own “day without childcare” with numerous childcare centers in which the movement was observed to draw attention to work.

Four days in the Duluth region closed their doors on Monday to raise awareness of problems they see in the childcare system.

Parents and childcare teachers gathered in the Young Minds Learning Center in Duluth. There was a press conference on which speakers shared their frustrations about the childcare system. This included not sustainable wages for employees and the high costs for day care centers for families.

“Let us use these topics. What do we do to do this not only for ourselves, but for future families better, ”said parents Jordan Nikunen.

Nikunen himself has a son in the daycare center and is very grateful to have this place. She knows that it is not so easy for many to secure childcare and wanted to help in every conceivable way.

Together with many others who took part in the press conference, she organized a rally along the Mesaba Avenue, where they showed signs of more state financing and better wages in early childhood education.

Courtney Greiner is the community organizer for children who counts on us, an organization that focuses on the childcare more affordable nationwide. She also heads her own childcare center, Esko Minis.

She said that the problems of childcare not only affect children and their families, but also affects everyone in a community.

“It all has an impact. That is why our grocery stores are missing employees, our petrol stations and our police authorities and hospitals, ”said Greiner. “If parents have no access to childcare, they cannot go to work.”

The local legislators ask for more state financing for early childcare throughout Minnesota.

One of the proposed invoices of the main state would welcome childcare costs to 7% of the family's annual income.

“We could raise the real care costs in our childcare centers, and it would not harm our families,” said Greiner. “So we could pay our teachers, we could run our business like a company and the state would subsidize it.”

The national “day without childcare” is planned for May 12th.

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