The Sept. 8 front-page story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press described parents across the country being forced out of jobs, classrooms, and financial stability because they cannot get the childcare assistance for which they qualify. The story focuses on a mother in Indiana, but Minnesotans don’t need to look that far from home.

Nearly 6,000 Minnesota children were waiting for childcare assistance as of July 2026, in both metro and greater Minnesota counties. One Minnesota mother, an in-home health aide who is also attending college, sometimes had to bring her 1-year-old daughter to class and to clients’ homes while she waited for help. She failed several classes trying to juggle school and care for her baby.

Those aren’t simply childcare problems. They are workforce problems, education problems, and economic development problems.

And they should be high on the agenda of whoever Minnesotans elect as our next governor.

Minnesota has spent considerable time debating childcare — its cost, availability, funding and, importantly, fraud. Fraud deserves vigorous investigation and accountability. Taxpayers and ethical providers should expect nothing less.

But accountability and access are not opposing goals.

We also must make sure the legitimate childcare system works for the thousands of Minnesota families who depend upon it to go to work or school.

One place the next governor can start is the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), Minnesota’s primary childcare support program for lower-income families who are working, looking for work, or pursuing education.

We don’t need to reinvent CCAP. We need to make the system we have work better.

Two changes could make an immediate difference.

1. Put childcare dollars where families actually need them.

Minnesota allocates CCAP funds among all counties statewide. The problem is that demand doesn’t fall neatly along county lines.

Some counties exhaust their allocations and put eligible families on waiting lists. Others have money left over that cannot readily be redirected to counties where families are waiting.

An analysis by Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families found that 74% of counties were underspending their CCAP allocations, while 12% were spending less than half of what they had been allocated. Approximately $7 million was going unused.

In the context of a state budget, $7 million may not sound enormous. To a parent who cannot accept a job because they can’t afford childcare, it can be life changing.

The Minnesota Child Care Association has worked with county social-services administrators on a budget-neutral proposal to better align county allocations with actual demand. This one isn’t about spending more money. It is about using the money taxpayers have already provided where it is actually needed.

Our next governor should make that common-sense reform a priority.

2. Don’t punish families because government is running behind.

The second problem is even more frustrating.

Federal law requires a “redetermination” of eligibility for families already using CCAP every 12 months. Families submit documentation about income, household members, employment, and other information.

That makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense is what happens next.

A family submits everything on time. The county falls behind processing the paperwork. The family’s existing childcare authorization expires. Through no fault of the parent, the assistance stops.

We have seen the consequences firsthand:

One family submitted everything required but faced losing assistance for two children because the paperwork had not been processed. A teenage mother lost childcare assistance for three weeks and missed the final three weeks of her junior year. Another mother spent weeks being told her assistance had been processed when it had not — and lost a new job while waiting.

Low-income families, in particular, cannot withstand the shock of suddenly losing childcare assistance. Loss of employment and housing soon follow. These families are already vulnerable and working so hard — they do not have reserves to call up in a pinch, especially when that pinch lasts weeks or months.

Eventually, counties often retroactively restore the benefit. But telling a parent that the government might pay several weeks or months from now doesn’t solve today’s problem.

The parent still has to report to work. The childcare provider still has employees to pay. The child still needs care tomorrow morning.

No family should lose childcare assistance simply because government failed to process paperwork that was submitted on time.

The solution is straightforward: If a family has completed its requirements by the deadline, its existing CCAP assistance should continue until the county finishes processing the case.

Childcare is workforce infrastructure

The Associated Press found hundreds of thousands of children on childcare-assistance waiting lists across the country and parents making extraordinary tradeoffs. The consequences: Parents leave jobs, miss classes, fall behind on bills, or scramble for makeshift care.

Minnesota businesses already understand something policymakers sometimes overlook: You cannot have a functioning workforce without functioning childcare.

A nurse cannot care for patients if she has nowhere safe for her toddler to go. A manufacturing worker cannot work a shift without reliable care. A student cannot complete a degree with an infant sitting beside her in class.

Most importantly, a child cannot continue healthy development and critical early education if bounced in and out of programs with trusted teachers.

The next Minnesota governor will inherit difficult questions about childcare funding, affordability, supply, and oversight. Some will require significant redesign and bipartisan compromise. These two reforms should not:

Move existing CCAP dollars to where the demand exists.

And when parents do everything government asks of them, don’t take away their childcare because government hasn’t done its part.

While childcare needs more public investment to help more families across the board, these suggestions are about making what we already invest work for more families.

Our families, employers — and the children — cannot afford to wait.

Chad Dunkley is CEO of New Horizon Academy, co-chair of the Early Care and Education Consortium, and president of the Minnesota Child Care Association.