A roundtable was held Wednesday with childcare providers, parents, and local politicians all trying to find solutions to the childcare crisis. Kids Count on Us, a coalition of over 500 childcare providers across Minnesota, hosted the event at the Building for Women in downtown Duluth.

“We’ve come together today to hear from parents, to hear from providers, not just about the long-term steps that we’ve begun to take and we need to do more of as we go forward to create a real system for child care delivery for one another in community together, but also to address the immediate emergency that we’re facing here in our community of Duluth,” said Senator Jen McEwen.

The YWCA Early Childhood Center is one of three Duluth centers closing in the next two months. For those who have closed and those struggling to stay open, finances are a large part of the problem.

“There are lots of factors, but they all point to the same conclusion. We cannot afford to keep our child care center open,” said YWCA of Duluth Executive Director Morgan Beryl. “We are consistently understaffed to attract and keep teachers and because our teachers had not received a wage increase for many years, we began wage increases in 2022. We also allowed teachers to bring one child with them for free and an additional three children at 50 percent discount. These benefits helped, but not enough.”

Wednesday’s roundtable continues the ongoing conversation as both short-term and systematic solutions are explored.

RELATED: Over 1100 childcare spots still needed in Duluth

“There’s three things that I’m taking away from this conversation. The first is we need an emergency bill that will allow families that can’t find childcare slots the opportunities to hire dual family nannies or other opportunities for hiring babysitters and nannies to help care for their families. The second, we need infrastructure and stabilization grants, particularly for rural communities to be able to open and sustain childcare centers and daycares and family providers,” said Senator Grant Hauschild. “And third, and to me most importantly, a bill that I have championed now for over a year is the Great Start Child Care Affordability Bill. This bill is based on a study that was done by the National Department of Health indicating that families shouldn’t spend more than 7% of their income on child care. This is critical for the vitality and the growth of our community so that families can start and have children.”

In addition to Senators Hauschild and McEwen, State Representatives Liish Kozlowski and Natalie Zeleznikar and St. Louis County Commissioners Ashley Grimm and Annie Harala all attended the roundtable, listening to the childcare providers and parents share their struggles. No clear solution was agreed upon at the roundtable, but the discussion will continue with politicians planning on bringing these issues to the floor in the next legislative session.