Information on early childhood education (ECE) providers in Minnesota is available through the MN Department of Human Services’ Parent Aware website. We have compiled information on comparable centers that are reasonably proximate to the University of Minnesota campuses in the Twin Cities. Our analysis includes centers within the five-mile radius from UMCDC that was initially presented by Dean Quam as indicative of the availability of ECE near campus. Each row in the following table adds criteria to identify centers that are comparable to UMCDC. There are few ECE providers of comparable quality convenient to campus.

In a five-mile radius of the UMCDC there are only eleven providers of comparable quality and curriculum. The closest of these providers is 2 miles away, and the median distance is 3.3 miles. As this distance is calculated “as the crow flies,” this calculation understates how far away these providers are.