State Rep. Kristin Robbins Accuses Walz of Ignoring Repeated Daycare Fraud Warnings

A Minnesota lawmaker said Gov. Tim Walz ignored repeated warnings that daycare providers in the state were engaging in fraud.

State Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican, told reporters she informed the Walz administration about her suspicions of fraud at daycare centers, but they “turned a blind eye” to her repeated warnings. Robbins is running for the Republican nomination for governor.

“I gave the Department of Human Services a list of daycare providers getting over $1 million in the previous year from the state who had numerous violations, and this daycare was one of them on the list,” Robbins said.

“The Quality Learning Center was thrust into the national spotlight after independent journalist Nick Shirley posted a video showing what appeared to be an inactive facility with a misspelled sign reading ‘Learning.’ While the center has not been publicly named as a target of federal charges, the controversy has intensified attention on Minnesota’s broader fraud crisis.”

State officials later described the center as closed, despite it appearing open for business hours earlier. Robbins said this is part of a pattern across multiple state programs: “In Minnesota, we’ve been ground zero for fraud, unfortunately. This is a pattern across multiple programs, and despite numerous red flags, we keep seeing it.”

She criticized the administration’s response to ongoing issues: “They’ve started saying they are stopping payments to different programs and pausing new providers, which is welcome, but until this firestorm erupted, they’ve done nothing.” Robbins stated she believes Walz should resign. “If he resigned now, it would help, but Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has been part of this all along, so I don’t know if getting him to step down and getting Flanagan in office actually solves the problem.”