A Minneapolis daycare center that became a national punch line for misspelling "Learning" on its front sign has quietly corrected the error, an embarrassing fix that comes as state officials face renewed scrutiny over oversight failures and fraud concerns tied to Minnesota's child care system.
The Quality "Learing" Center in Minneapolis has corrected the misspelled sign that helped thrust the business into the national spotlight, one day after independent journalists visited the site while examining fraud allegations involving daycare providers in the city.
A sticker was affixed Tuesday morning to change the sign to "Quality Learning Center," correcting a mistake that many critics cited as an ironic red flag for a business tasked with early education.
Even after the fix, another error remained visible. The street address beneath the sign continued to read "Nicolet" instead of "Nicollet."
Manager Ibrahim Ali told the New York Post on Monday that the typo was the center's graphic designer's fault and said it would be corrected.
The misspelling became a symbol of broader concerns after the center surfaced amid scrutiny of Minnesota's human services fraud scandal.
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families said the center closed last week due to space constraints.
Commissioner Tikki Brown said Monday that state officials found no evidence of fraud associated with the center.
Those statements were contradicted by what reporters observed on site.
On Monday afternoon, the building suddenly appeared active, with children arriving and cars filling the parking lot. At least 20 children were seen entering the center despite official claims that it was closed.
The episode also revived memories of a widely circulated 2015 video tied to Minnesota's earlier child care fraud scandals, in which adults were shown posing as students to inflate enrollment at state-funded education programs, according to the Daily Mail.
That footage, which emerged during investigations into fraudulent billing practices, became emblematic of how weak oversight allowed operators to claim public money for services that were never delivered.
The resurfacing of that video amid the "Learing" Center controversy has reinforced public skepticism that Minnesota has fully addressed systemic vulnerabilities exposed nearly a decade ago, particularly as officials again offer assurances that no wrongdoing has occurred.
FBI Director Kash Patel recently announced on X that the FBI has been aggressively targeting a massive fraud network that stole from Feeding Our Future in Minnesota.
"The FBI has toppled a $250 million fraud network that targeted vulnerable children and exposed a large-scale money laundering operation," Patel said.
"The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feeding Our Future network," he wrote. "The case led to 78 indictments and 57 convictions."
The center drew national attention after it was featured in a viral video by independent journalist Nick Shirley, who visited several daycare centers in Minneapolis while investigating alleged misuse of taxpayer funds.
Shirley said some centers received hundreds of millions of dollars in payments without legitimate business activity to justify them.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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