By: Diane Benjamin
Yes Day Care is expensive. Yes it is HEAVILY regulated by the State which means they contribute to making it expensive.
Did you know Milestones Early Learning Center & Preschool was a non profit? Click that link to see their 6/30/2025 tax return.
That tax return states they received $723,411 in government grants last fiscal year. They went out of business anyway? No grant this year?
Are all these day care centers going out of business because of minimum wage increases? It’s not like they can replace people with machines like McDonald’s or keep their prices from going up with it!
Guess who is listed as the Director?
.
Is that the same Ben Matthews mentioned in this story working hard to prevent bad teachers at Unit 5 from being fired? https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2026-07-29/why-firing-a-teacher-in-illinois-is-so-hard-even-after-early-red-flags
Read the story if you care about kids. Obviously State Rep. Sharon Chung and State Sen. Dave Koehler like union bucks more than kids since they voted to make getting rid of teachers harder.
Is this the same Ben Matthews – alias BAM Designs – that makes a lot of money off Democrats running for office? https://illinoissunshine.org/search/Bam Design
Ben? Ben? Ever going to say what happened to all that money at Milestones?
The City of Bloomington is now considering subsidizing child care? https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2026-07-31/city-of-bloomington-to-play-a-part-in-solving-childcare-crisis
City leadership should be asking why the Illinois budget spending isn’t enough. Is it spent in the wrong places? Does Illinois have Learing Centers? Bloomington: You don’t have enough money for this, even with fleecing citizens with a grocery tax and property tax increase you didn’t need.
Illinois Budget: https://budget.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/budget/documents/budget-book/fy2027-budget/Fiscal-Year-2027-Operating-Budget.pdf
It is very easy to search. Hold down Ctrl and hit F. A search box will appear. The words immigrant or migrant is mentioned 35 times. Day Care only 16 times.
Day care for “migrants” got over $4 million in 2025-2026. 2027 shows zero because it was moved to a different department
This is where it got moved to, add three zero’s: $5,422,400. That more than a million more than the prior 2 years. I’ll help you out – PDF page 396.
Other screenshots below show spending hundreds of millions of dollars on day care but centers here keep closing anyway:
Block Grants are federal funds.
$71 million is going to subsidize 11.5 thousand? $6,174 each?
This budget sure looks like “migrants” are the priority. Other migrant spending below, don’t forget to add three zero’s to the numbers.
$143 MILLION is going to senior immigrant health care. Healthcare cost too much for those not seniors, so that program was dropped.
Going to keep voting for Democrats who make illegal aliens their priority?
Republicans had zero input in this budget. Were your ancestors subsidized when they immigrated? How about raising your own kids instead of hiring other people that don’t care as much as you do. I don’t want to hear it can’t be done. If your kids aren’t worth sacrificing for why did you have them?
Let the hate begin.
As always, excellent coverage and lots of detail. Thanks Diane! You’re the GOAT!
It’s easier to serve imaginary illegal migrant children than imaginary American children with social security numbers tied to tax returns etc. If they stay open, they might get raided by ice.
This is what winning looks like. A nation so mired in cost of living inflation and with the purchase of material things , that BOTH adult parents MUST have full time jobs in order to afford to pay others to watch their children while they work to earn enough to even exist.
Better off being an illegal Alien in Illinois with EVERYTHING free and paid for by the state.
Undocumented Migrants don’t have to pay for daycare in Illinois. And they don’t even have to work either.
#MidwestSuicidalEmpathy
#MyEBT
Also, anyone else notice how Milestones preschool was a non profit? I don’t know about you, but the board of directors for non profits typically heavily fundraiser to support their programs operational viability. They raised $270,000 in 2024, but only $230,000 in 2025. This occured while operational losses worsened significantly. They knew they had a cash flow problem, so why did they do event less fundraising to fix their growing problem?
I looked at the last two years of their facebook posts, and aside from a few low engagement posts about giving via PayPal, they did not have a major fundraising gala/event since April of 2024… Why no public fundraising events for major gifts in over two years? Does that sound like a board dedicated to the success of this local historic institution? No “Save our school” all hands on deck fundraisers? Just a surprise, “oops, we are closing in one week?”
Board member Ben Matthews, how much fundraising did you do to keep the organization open? Or were you too busy being the government union rep protecting sexual pedophile teachers in unit 5?
https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2026-07-29/why-firing-a-teacher-in-illinois-is-so-hard-even-after-early-red-flags
Oh look, all the Democrats saying the same exact campaign goals for every candidate: “affordable housing” and “childcare.”
Here comes the city/county subsidies for housing and childcare, if not outright government owned and operated public housing and childcare centers.
The Democrat playbook:
First, publicly cater to attract homeless people to McLean county with free benefits, free temporary housing, using government funded NGOs and grants, and protests against protecting public spaces, along with rhetoric like “housing is a human right.” Then Jack up residential property taxes 40% in 5 years to make people’s property tax bill be more than their annual principle and interest mortgage payment, effectively doubling the cost of housing here and making it unaffordable. The result? A growing homeless population that becomes a “crisis” and first time homebuyer are priced out do the market, sowing dissention and discontent among the youth and low income folks.
Then, systematically work to undermine existing childcare options with heavy regulations, licensing, and government fees. As the centers predictably close, a manufactured crisis consequentially occurs. Push feminism to get moms into the workplace and destroy marriage so there are many single moms forced to work, slaving away for their boss, and paying boatloads for strangers to raise their children for them.
Then in unison , all Democrats campaign on housing and childcare, promising higher taxes to pay for their new found spending towards their new self declared “human rights.”