An Early Learning Scholarship has been crucial for my daughter and me — don’t cut them

Over the past decade, a Minnesota program called Early Learning Scholarships has awarded over 100,000 child care scholarships to families in desperate need.

State leaders who made that possible don’t often get to hear how that impacts those children and families. To them, it’s just another number on another spreadsheet.

If they did hear all of those stories, I bet they wouldn’t be on the verge of cutting scholarship funding. If the Legislature and Gov. Tim Walz don’t take action, about $100 million will be cut from the Early Learning Scholarship program. If this cut happens, the long-term effects on families and Minnesota would be disastrous. 

That’s why I am sharing my story.  

Scholarships literally changed the lives of me and my daughter Oaklyn. 

Early Learning Scholarships empower low-income families with babies, toddlers and preschoolers to access high-quality child care and preschool programs. These are the kinds of programs that get kids ready for kindergarten and everything that comes after. There is no way my daughter Oaklyn could have benefited from such a program without scholarships. We simply couldn’t have come close to affording it. 

Here’s our situation: Like millions of Americans, I have struggled with addiction and an abusive marriage. When I was pregnant with Oaklyn, I stayed sober. After she was born, I relapsed. My absolute rock bottom came when Child Protective Services took Oaklyn away from me.  

When that happened, I knew I needed help. My CPS case manager connected me with Wayside Recovery Center, where I started my recovery journey. Thank goodness for them, too. 

As I was going through treatment, Oaklyn and I were living in a shelter. Shelter staff encouraged me to apply for an Early Learning Scholarship. I was thrilled when I learned that we qualified and had been awarded a scholarship that we could use at any high-quality early learning program of our choosing! 

We chose Rise Early Learning Center, a four-star Parent Aware-rated child care program that is co-located in a housing complex in St. Louis Park. Beyond early learning for Oaklyn, Rise also helped me with support for toilet training, nutrition and other parenting challenges. They’ve helped Oaklyn communicate about the big emotions that she was feeling, and her vocabulary has grown so much.

At the same time, having Oaklyn in child care during the day allowed me to take care of the things I needed to take care of, and be more present with Oaklyn and treasure our time together. That part was huge, too. 

Because of the scholarship, I’ve been able to further my education. I’m working toward my certification as a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor through Minneapolis Community and Technical College. I’m not quite there yet, but I can now see a clear path to financial independence and being a constructive part of my community. 

I can’t tell you how much it meant to me to have access to early learning help for Oaklyn and non-judgmental parenting advice for me. That’s happening because of Rise, but access to Rise is happening because of scholarships. And Early Learning Scholarships are happening because of the Legislature and governor. 

The Legislature is facing a difficult budget situation. I get that. I really do. But it breaks my heart to think that tens of thousands of little kids like Oaklyn could lose this opportunity for a much better life.  

Because Oaklyn and I are getting this amazing help now, I firmly believe that taxpayers won’t have to pay for as many expensive services to support us in the future. As great as scholarships have been for us, that seems like a good deal for taxpayers, too. 

Whatever happens with the budget this year, I wanted to wholeheartedly thank state legislators and Gov. Tim Walz for making a scholarship available to Oaklyn. It is changing the trajectory of her life. 

I just shared one life-changing story, but you have it within your grasp to empower another 15,000 other stories like ours every single year. That’s what funding Early Learning Scholarships for all eligible families would do. 

I hope you can find a way to do that for other great kids like Oaklyn.