Governor Walz has called Minnesota “a caring state.” He established a goal when he became governor to make Minnesota “the best state in the country to raise a family” and followed through by working with advocates, activists, and the legislature to invest in child care and early learning programs, to create and fund the state’s child tax credit, and to adopt a state paid family and medical leave policy. The combination of these policies—along with paid sick days and good aging and disability care policies—led Minnesota to be one of the top five states for care policy in The Century Foundation and Caring Across Generations’ 2024 Care Report Card.
When the pandemic was raging, federal relief funding offered states across the nation an opportunity to support their child care and early learning programs and to innovate ways to lower costs for families and shore up supply. States like Minnesota built on this foundation to make meaningful, lasting investments. Minnesota used the more than $500 million that came into the state in federal pandemic-relief funding to give grants to more than 8,600 child care providers, reaching a combination of centers and family child care homes in every county. The state also addressed staffing shortages by investing in recruitment, retention and training of early educators. They were able to reduce their waiting lists and provide financial assistance to more families with children through Child Care Development Block Grant funding for low-income families.
After Minnesota voted in a trifecta government in 2022, elected officials together with organizers and advocates leveraged years of work to improve child care and early education to build on the pandemic-era successes and make significant investments in child care and early learning.
Meeting Child Care and Early Learning Priorities
The state has been investing public funds to make affordable, high-quality child care and early learning options available to families and raise compensation for early educators. As Governor Walz said in his 2024 State of the State, “We’ve made the largest education investments in state history. Expanded access to pre-K and affordable child care.… We’re going to keep building families and communities, roads and bridges, for our kids and their kids—for generations to come.”
In 2024, Governor Walz signed legislation to invest $1.3 billion in state dollars over four years to lower child care prices for families while supporting a variety of child care options for families to choose from. The state reduced copayments for families receiving child care assistance, expanded eligibility for the state’s Early Learning Scholarship Program to all children under age 5, and expanded access to pre-K. They also established one of the first-in-the-nation state-funded programs, the Great Start Compensation Support program, to increase child care worker compensation and expand child care access. State leaders also committed to ongoing funding for a family, friend, and neighbor grant program that provides culturally appropriate training and resources to support children’s safety, health, and learning. In addition, Minnesota brought together programs impacting children and families into one streamlined department—a new Department of Children, Youth, and Families. The new department will go into effect by July 2025, and help prioritize and coordinate efforts supporting the well-being of the families of Minnesota.
The Best Child Tax Credit in the Country
Governor Walz also signed legislation to establish “the best child tax credit in the country,” providing $1,750 per child in Minnesota. Not only is that more than any other state, but its child age and household eligibility rules are broader than most other state CTCs as well. In August 2024, he announced that nearly 440,000 children have benefited from over $545 million going back into family budgets this year. These funds help parents pay for food, clothing, rent or mortgage, and other necessities of raising a family—in turn keeping local economies running. This initiative is expected to cut child poverty in the state by one-third. Together, the child tax credit expansion and child care and early learning investments will make a significant difference in supporting children and families in Minnesota to have what they need to thrive.
Comprehensive Paid Family and Medical Leave
Minnesota became the most recent state to adopt paid family and medical leave. Learning from other states, Minnesota was able to make its leave policy one of the most comprehensive laws in the nation. The law, starting in 2026, will guarantee up to twelve weeks paid leave to nearly all workers in each of two categories—medical leave and other kinds of leave—allowing them to collect up to twenty weeks of leave total over one year, including leave for pregnancy or recovery from childbirth, parental leave, safety leave, caregiving leave, and military deployment-related leave.
The Work Continues
These measures do not solve all of the state’s challenges. The historic lack of investment in children and families in the United States means that measures like these help states catch up and get ahead, steadily but slowly. Even with these investments, since the pandemic began, and especially in the last couple of years, “the decline of family child care providers has accelerated while the growth in the child care centers has slowed.” Recent child care closures in Duluth and Rochester, Minnesota are a reminder that the work is not done. The hope is that the new investments will begin to change this trajectory. As one Minnesota child care director said: “We are finally almost fully staffed for the first time in over three years. COVID really impacted our ability to hire quality teachers at the current, average pay rate. We are making use of the MN Greater Compensation grant funds and that is helping.” Yet other providers are still struggling. Advocates and leaders are continuing to work to build on the progress Minnesota has made, including by supporting the Great Start Affordability plan to help make sure all families can afford high quality early childhood care and education.
Minnesota has made great strides in making the state a great place to raise a family. It is a model for other states—including in being a reminder that making progress does not mean the work can stop, but rather should provide the opportunity to keep building on a more solid foundation.
Tags: child tax credit, child care, wisconsin, paid family leave
Minnesota Is a Caring State
Governor Walz has called Minnesota “a caring state.” He established a goal when he became governor to make Minnesota “the best state in the country to raise a family” and followed through by working with advocates, activists, and the legislature to invest in child care and early learning programs, to create and fund the state’s child tax credit, and to adopt a state paid family and medical leave policy. The combination of these policies—along with paid sick days and good aging and disability care policies—led Minnesota to be one of the top five states for care policy in The Century Foundation and Caring Across Generations’ 2024 Care Report Card.
When the pandemic was raging, federal relief funding offered states across the nation an opportunity to support their child care and early learning programs and to innovate ways to lower costs for families and shore up supply. States like Minnesota built on this foundation to make meaningful, lasting investments. Minnesota used the more than $500 million that came into the state in federal pandemic-relief funding to give grants to more than 8,600 child care providers, reaching a combination of centers and family child care homes in every county. The state also addressed staffing shortages by investing in recruitment, retention and training of early educators. They were able to reduce their waiting lists and provide financial assistance to more families with children through Child Care Development Block Grant funding for low-income families.
After Minnesota voted in a trifecta government in 2022, elected officials together with organizers and advocates leveraged years of work to improve child care and early education to build on the pandemic-era successes and make significant investments in child care and early learning.
Meeting Child Care and Early Learning Priorities
The state has been investing public funds to make affordable, high-quality child care and early learning options available to families and raise compensation for early educators. As Governor Walz said in his 2024 State of the State, “We’ve made the largest education investments in state history. Expanded access to pre-K and affordable child care.… We’re going to keep building families and communities, roads and bridges, for our kids and their kids—for generations to come.”
In 2024, Governor Walz signed legislation to invest $1.3 billion in state dollars over four years to lower child care prices for families while supporting a variety of child care options for families to choose from. The state reduced copayments for families receiving child care assistance, expanded eligibility for the state’s Early Learning Scholarship Program to all children under age 5, and expanded access to pre-K. They also established one of the first-in-the-nation state-funded programs, the Great Start Compensation Support program, to increase child care worker compensation and expand child care access. State leaders also committed to ongoing funding for a family, friend, and neighbor grant program that provides culturally appropriate training and resources to support children’s safety, health, and learning. In addition, Minnesota brought together programs impacting children and families into one streamlined department—a new Department of Children, Youth, and Families. The new department will go into effect by July 2025, and help prioritize and coordinate efforts supporting the well-being of the families of Minnesota.
The Best Child Tax Credit in the Country
Governor Walz also signed legislation to establish “the best child tax credit in the country,” providing $1,750 per child in Minnesota. Not only is that more than any other state, but its child age and household eligibility rules are broader than most other state CTCs as well. In August 2024, he announced that nearly 440,000 children have benefited from over $545 million going back into family budgets this year. These funds help parents pay for food, clothing, rent or mortgage, and other necessities of raising a family—in turn keeping local economies running. This initiative is expected to cut child poverty in the state by one-third. Together, the child tax credit expansion and child care and early learning investments will make a significant difference in supporting children and families in Minnesota to have what they need to thrive.
Comprehensive Paid Family and Medical Leave
Minnesota became the most recent state to adopt paid family and medical leave. Learning from other states, Minnesota was able to make its leave policy one of the most comprehensive laws in the nation. The law, starting in 2026, will guarantee up to twelve weeks paid leave to nearly all workers in each of two categories—medical leave and other kinds of leave—allowing them to collect up to twenty weeks of leave total over one year, including leave for pregnancy or recovery from childbirth, parental leave, safety leave, caregiving leave, and military deployment-related leave.
The Work Continues
These measures do not solve all of the state’s challenges. The historic lack of investment in children and families in the United States means that measures like these help states catch up and get ahead, steadily but slowly. Even with these investments, since the pandemic began, and especially in the last couple of years, “the decline of family child care providers has accelerated while the growth in the child care centers has slowed.” Recent child care closures in Duluth and Rochester, Minnesota are a reminder that the work is not done. The hope is that the new investments will begin to change this trajectory. As one Minnesota child care director said: “We are finally almost fully staffed for the first time in over three years. COVID really impacted our ability to hire quality teachers at the current, average pay rate. We are making use of the MN Greater Compensation grant funds and that is helping.” Yet other providers are still struggling. Advocates and leaders are continuing to work to build on the progress Minnesota has made, including by supporting the Great Start Affordability plan to help make sure all families can afford high quality early childhood care and education.
Minnesota has made great strides in making the state a great place to raise a family. It is a model for other states—including in being a reminder that making progress does not mean the work can stop, but rather should provide the opportunity to keep building on a more solid foundation.
Tags: child tax credit, child care, wisconsin, paid family leave