Minnesota's Child Care Fraud: What's Really Going On?

Minnesota's political scene is in a stir. Governor Tim Walz decided not to run again. He wants to focus on stopping fraud in state programs. This comes after a video by a conservative influencer, Nick Shirley, went viral. The video claimed that some day care centers in Minneapolis were cheating the system. It showed 10 centers that supposedly got money for kids they didn't have. State regulators checked these places. They found kids at nine centers. One center wasn't open yet. Another had already closed. Four of these centers are still being investigated. In total, the state is looking into 55 day care providers. The Child Care Assistance Program helps 23, 000 kids and 12, 000 families every month. It cost $306 million in 2024. The nine centers in the video got $17. 4 million from the program last year. Republicans say they helped make the video. They think this shows bigger problems with social service programs. Federal prosecutors have already charged over 90 people in fraud cases. They warn that billions could be involved. Walz says he wants to stop fraud, but he also thinks Republicans are using this for politics. The video by Shirley and his partner, David Hoch, showed them visiting these centers. They often couldn't get in or no one answered. Some people at the centers disagreed with their claims. One center, Quality Learning Center, had a misspelled sign and seemed empty. Shirley went back there, but it's not clear why. State regulators visited all the centers. They found no big problems yet. Two centers closed this year, but one reopened.The Star Tribune visited all 10 centers. They saw kids in four places. Six were closed or no one let them in. One director, Ahmed Hasan, said people have been calling and visiting his center. They are angry and threatening. Some owners have gotten hundreds of death threats. Records show that none of the owners have been charged with fraud. But seven centers have had violations. Six of them got money from Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit involved in a big fraud scandal. Its leader, Aimee Bock, was convicted of crimes and ordered to pay back $5. 2 million. Shirley is a right-wing influencer with over 1 million followers. He has been criticized for false claims in other videos. He was at the U. S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. His media company is in Utah, but he didn't comment on the Minnesota case. The Child Care Assistance Program helps low-income families pay for child care. It costs $306 million a year. The state has about 1, 800 licensed child care centers. About 3, 600 providers are in the assistance program. They get unannounced visits to check for fraud. Fraud in day care centers isn't new. In 2015, three centers were raided for overbilling. By 2017, 10 operators were charged, but penalties were light. Some got short jail time or just had to pay back the money. The state has tried to stop fraud since 2019. They use data to flag problems and do more inspections. But they haven't switched to electronic attendance systems, which could help. In 2019, 22 states already had these systems.