This short article was produced for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network in collaboration with Capitol News Illinois. _ A part of the reporting in Alexander County is supported by moneying from the Pulitzer. Register for Dispatches to get stories like this one as quickly as they are released.
Reporting Highlights
- Childcare Gap: About 70% of rural Illinoisans reside in a childcare desert, requiring difficult options on moms and dads: Some drive 100 miles a day or more to discover care, others leave the labor force.
- Company Crisis: Illinois lost 4,300 companies in a years, a 33% decrease. Those intending to open brand-new centers deal with huge difficulties, from high start-up expenses to overloaded licensing workplaces.
- Little Startup Help: The state allocated $100 million for brand-new centers, however it's just gone to 8 locations. A suggested growth of federal financing is bound in the long-delayed farm expense.
These highlights were composed by the press reporters and editors who dealt with this story.
Heather and Stephen Casner sat throughout from the loan officer in the fall of 2022, a stack of documents in between them. The structure they were shopping– a 21-room, one-story motel in rural Anna, Illinois– was overruning with garbage and would require a total overhaul before they might resume it as a childcare center in an area where there were nearly no such centers. After a long search, it was the finest choice they might discover.
The Casners will sign the documents for a $600,000 loan, utilizing their home as security and setting aside $200,000 from Stephen's retirement to cover what the loan would not. It was a shocking amount in a southern Illinois town where the per capita earnings has to do with $25,000– 40% listed below the nationwide level. “I've never ever even seen that much cash,” Heather stated. “I wasn't raised that method.”
Heather, who grew up on a farm simply up the roadway, directed her late dad's approach: “My daddy constantly utilized to state he was going to simply keep farming till the cash runs out.”
With a company handshake, they were the brand-new owners of a 1950s antique, the Plaza Motel.
The clock on the task was currently ticking: In order to make it through economically, they ‘d require to begin registering kids within 6 months. They understood it would be difficult, however they quickly would be stunned by the magnitude of the difficulties ahead.
The motel the Casners purchased as it searched in 2022, before it was renovated (very first image), and in December 2024, after they turned it into a childcare center (2nd image).
Over the previous years, Illinois has actually lost almost 4,300 certified childcare service providers, a 33% decrease. As an outcome, it has actually likewise lost almost 38,000 certified childcare slots for kids, outmatching the rate at which the kid population is diminishing.
In 2019,
