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The Minneapolis-area daycare, whose misspelled sign “Quality Learing Center” went viral after being reported on by YouTube journalist Nick Shirley in his investigation into rampant fraud in Minnesota, has now corrected the infamous sign.
Shirley and another man approached a building labeled the Quality Learing Center (sic) in Minneapolis, with Shirley noting that “Learning” was misspelled on the daycare’s sign outside. The business appeared inactive during the visit despite receiving state childcare assistance funds. This led to allegations that the center is one of several participating in a widespread fraud scheme taking place in certain segments of Minnesota’s Somali community.
To many critics, the misspelled sign was an illustration of the fraud openly taking place in Minnesota.
Among the center’s critics was U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who wrote on X that “One fraudulent business in Minnesota that misspelled ‘learning’ on its building received $1.9M this year while masquerading as a daycare.”
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McMahon wrote that “There are not enough words to describe the breathtaking failure that has happened under the watch of [Gov. Tim Walz].”
The center, however, has since pushed back on the allegations, saying it is innocent of any wrongdoing.
Fox News photographed several individuals correcting the misspelled sign late on Monday night.
Earlier on Monday, Ibrahim Ali, a man who identified himself as a manager at the Quality Learning Center, strongly denied any allegations of fraud at the facility. He told Fox News that the center is currently open and has never closed, contradicting statements made earlier today by officials with the Department of Children, Youth and Families that the center had closed earlier this month.
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Quality Learning Center in Minnesota was found at the center of an alleged childcare fraud scandal in the state. (Madelin Fuerste / Fox News Channel)
Ali also accused Shirley of visiting the facility before operating hours, which he says run from 2 to 10 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Thursday.
He criticized Shirley, saying, “Are you trying to record that we’re doing fraud, or are you trying to put the Somali name and the fraud in the same sentence? That’s what really hurt us the last couple of days.”
The manager blamed the misspelling on the individual who installed it, saying, “We mess up the sign, we pay somebody to do our sign, he incorrectly did it, we’re having him work on it. We paid him to correct the sign. He said it’ll be done by this week, so by the end of this week our sign will be fine.”
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The Quality Learning Center also recently made news for collecting 95 violations from the state human services agency between 2019 and 2023, according to St. Paul’s ABC affiliate.
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Such violations range from failure to keep hazardous items away from kids to the daycare not having any records for more than a dozen listed children, according to the outlet. Documentation reviewed by Fox News Digital showed the site’s current license does not expire until the end of 2026.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
