Governor Visits Brooklyn Park To Tout Child Care Benefits for Military Families
Gov. Tim Walz visited a Brooklyn Park day care on Monday to announce a new plan that will provide child care benefits to local military families.
Walz was joined by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and other state lawmakers in the visit to Tutor Time. The visit was a way to announce the launch of the Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood-PLUS initiative. The program uses federal dollars to help offset the cost of child care for active duty National Guard and Reserve members.
“Because our service members, even though they’re part time, we ask them to deploy. We ask them to go to training,” said Maj. Gen. Shawn Manke. “And sometimes these things happen on short notice. So it’s very important that we have dependable child care.”
While other states have active duty military bases with child care centers, Minnesota does not. Under the MCCYN-PLUS initiative, local military families can receive up to $1,800 a month under this program to help pay for child care at an accredited provider.
“My husband is deployed overseas, and having two small children by myself, it’s a lot of work,” said Mimi Obazeluwa. “So just having this benefit really, really makes a difference for our family.”
Gov. Walz reads to children at Tutor Time of Brooklyn Park day care.
State officials say that Minnesota has more than 10,000 spouses and 16,000 children of active duty National Guard and Reserve members.
Also See: Job Fair in Brooklyn Center Seeks Military Veterans
