The Quality Learing Center is no more.
The Minneapolis child care center thrust into the spotlight by a viral YouTube exposé on Minnesota’s rampant day care fraud scheme has officially shut down. State records confirm Quality Learning Center requested its license closure, effective Tuesday.
Late last month, independent journalist Nick Shirley released a video in which he toured nearly a dozen centers, exposing them for pocketing public funds without delivering services. Quality Learning Center stood out for its sign bearing a glaring typo – “Learing” – that operators scrambled to fix after the clip went viral. The footage captured an empty-looking facade and zero activity, fueling suspicions in a state already reeling from massive welfare scams.
“Quality Learning Center closed on Tuesday, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ licensing records. The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families [DCYF] said that the center requested closure of its license effective Tuesday,” CBS News reported.
The center raked in $1.9 million from Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program in fiscal 2025. DCYF got word on December 19 of a voluntary shutdown plan. Ten days later, an on-site check found operators reversing course, vowing to stay open.
By January 6, records showed otherwise—closed tight.
“The provider is unable to reopen without reapplying for a license,” DCYF reported
Shirley’s clip reignited fury over Minnesota’s social programs grift. Federal prosecutors have already nailed dozens for ripping off kid meal initiatives, autism therapy, and senior housing aid. Schemes ran deep, due to what appears to be intentionally lax oversight in Somali immigrant-heavy enclaves.
Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people with allegedly defrauding state programs that offered meals to needy children, behavioral therapy for children with autism and assistance for seniors searching for housing.
The Trump administration deployed about 2,000 Department of Homeland Security agents to the Twin Cities earlier this week, with the stated goal of cracking down on fraud and undocumented immigration. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem joined the operation, which Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called a “ridiculous surge” and a “show” for the cameras that has not been coordinated with the state.
President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services announced late last month it would freeze all federal child care funding for Minnesota amid the fraud investigations. On Tuesday, the department said it planned to halt billions more in social services funding for Minnesota and four other states led by Democrats.
Walz, who abruptly ended his reelection bid earlier this week, lashed out at President Trump, accusing him of using fraud investigations as a pretext to target Minnesota. He claimed the state is “under assault like no other time in our state’s history,” blaming what he called a “petty, vile administration” that he said shows no concern for the well-being of Minnesotans.
The daycare’s closure follows a prior attempt to appear legitimate. Days after Nick Shirley’s video first went viral, the once-empty center suddenly filled up with a couple of dozen kids who appeared to have been bused in, while staff and the owner’s son offered unconvincing excuses and angrily rebuffed reporters, underscoring a likely cover‑up.
Neighbors explained that the center’s parking lot is usually empty, and they had “never seen kids go in there” before the controversy, raising suspicions that the facility was effectively non-operational despite supposedly serving dozens of children. Staff angrily denied fraud, with one worker telling a reporter to “get the f–k out of here.”
The Quality Learning Center is not the first daycare center under scrutiny for engaging in cover-ups since Shirley’s video went viral. Last month, a different Somali-run day care, suspected of fraud, conveniently claimed it had been burglarized. According to Nasrulah Mohamed, manager of the Nokomis Day Care Center, thieves broke into the center, ignored the cash and electronics, and instead made off with employee and child enrollment records.
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