To the editor:

Thank you for your recent article on childcare providers in the Dec. 3rd Journal.

I am responding to the open invitation stating that “Input for potential solutions will be received.”

Our home was a daycare providers (my wife) venture for over 40 years. It was well known in our community and held in high regard. This is our input.

Our federal, state and local government cannot solve the problem of insufficient day care providers with more money. It is our experience that only by cutting nonsensible rules and excessive paper work, and only by training daycare licensors to conduct their work as the servants they are, rather than acting as the masters they sometimes display, will the shortage of providers improve.

It seemed that the licensors were always more interested in the plethora of regulations than observing the overall atmosphere of the daycare home. As an example, in our over 40 years, no child daycare licensor ever talked to, or questioned any of our daycare children. Ever.

This is our input. Make that your starting point for improvement.

Jon Scharlemann

Redwood Falls