Capitol Report: Child Care and Home Care Worker Shortages

A primary goal of the Senate Committee on Human Services Reform is to find cost savings for a budget area in which demand for services is expected to increase in the coming years. The committee has been meeting periodically throughout the interim, and recently heard testimony about changes to background requirements for children age 13 and older living in an in-home daycare setting, the declining availability of child care in Minnesota and the shortage of in-home personal care providers in the state. Senator Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, joins Capitol Report moderator Shannon Loehrke to highlight the committee’s recent discussions.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services projects that an additional 60,000 home health care positions, a critical segment of the long-term services and supports field, will need to be filled by the end of the decade. To study the issue, the Legislature formed the Home Care Workforce Shortage Working Group. Senator Jerry Relph, R-St. Cloud, is co-chair of the working group and joins Shannon to detail the scope of the problem.

Capitol architect Cass Gilbert believed that placing fine art within the Capitol structure would advance the education, civilization and intelligence of the state. Brian Pease of the Minnesota Historical Society provides context for painter Edwin Howland Blashfield’s spectacular Senate Chamber murals.