An empty daycare center in Minnesota is under scrutiny after reportedly receiving $4 million in taxpayer funds, sparking outrage among lawmakers who are now demanding explanations.

This controversy erupted on social media after independent journalist Nick Shirley shared a video on X, alleging that Minnesota authorities overlooked what he described as the ‘largest fraud in US history.’

The video quickly went viral, amassing over 65 million views within two days, as Shirley visited the Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis to challenge Governor Tim Walz about the allocation of taxpayer funds.

The daycare, identified in the video by its misspelled sign, ‘Quality Learing Center,’ appears deserted with an empty parking lot and a dimly lit lobby.

In reaction to the video, Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer, a Republican, criticized on X, “Four million dollars of hard-earned tax dollars going to an education center that can’t even spell learning correctly. Care to explain this one, Tim Walz?”

New York Congressman Mike Lawler, also a Republican, took a stronger stance, calling for arrests and prosecutions while insisting that the Governor of Minnesota be held responsible.

‘Congress should hold a hearing immediately and start getting answers,’ he added.

Elon Musk, once a prominent voice at the White House, has been posting about the daycare center as well, saying that once more Americans find out about it, they ‘will be horrified at what your tax money is doing’.

Pictured: Nick Shirley, a pro-Trump influencer, stands outside the Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The daycare center has racked up 121 violations, many of them serious, since May 2022

Governor Tim Walz has presided over a $1 billion fraud against Minnesota’s social safety net by criminals who submitted false invoices to receive taxpayer dollars. The Quality Learning Center has not been accused of wrongdoing

Vice President JD Vance has also addressed the scandal in Minnesota, though didn’t name the daycare center specifically. 

‘What’s happening in Minnesota is a microcosm of the immigration fraud in our system. Politicians like it because they get power. Welfare cheats like it because they get rich. But it’s a zero sum game, and they’re stealing both money and political power from Minnesotans,’ he wrote in a social media post on Saturday.

This comes after it was alleged that Minnesota’s government was defrauded out of at least $1 billion in public funds for programs meant to feed children, assist the homeless and provide autism therapy. So-called providers submitted false invoices to be reimbursed for services that were never provided, according to federal prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors say of the 86 people that have been charged as part of these fraud schemes, 59 have been convicted so far.

The situation is so dire that, in early December, Dr. Mehmet Oz threatened Walz that he would withhold federal Medicaid funding from the state unless significant changes were made. Many of these programs are funded, in whole or in part, by Medicaid. 

Oz serves as Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Quality Learning Center has not been officially accused of wrongdoing by authorities. Still, according to Shirley, a pro-Trump influencer, it has received up to $4 million in state and federal dollars. 

In Shirley’s clip, he was seen trying to speak with staff at the center. He was instead met with a screaming woman accusing him of being an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. 

‘Don’t open up! It’s ICE!’ the woman repeatedly shouted.

Shirley eventually got through to her and convinced her he wasn’t ICE and that he was a YouTuber merely asking about potential fraud.

Another man with Shirley held up a paper that he said was evidence that the Quality Learning Center had received $1.9 million in taxpayer funds in fiscal year 2025, specifically through Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). He claimed that the daycare had received $4 million in total from this program.

Local news station KSTP reached a different conclusion after investigating the facility in January. The station reported it received $7.8 million in federal dollars since 2019, though it isn’t clear whether this figure includes funding from sources other than CCAP. 

Congressman Tom Emmer, a Republican of Minnesota caught onto the news about the Quality Learning Center and urged Governor Walz to look into it

Pictured: Shirley gets into an argument with a woman outside the daycare center who believed for a while that he was a member of Immigration and Customs Enforcement

The claims prompted questions about where taxpayer money went, as the daycare center racked up 11 violations during a state inspection on June 23, 2025, according to government records.

These violations included failing to keep areas where children play from falling into disrepair, keeping items in cribs for infants, not following a doctor’s instructions when giving children prescription medicine, and hiring an unqualified substitute caregiver.

Since May of 2022, there have been 121 violations at the daycare, records showed, including allegedly failing to request background checks for 14 employees.

The only punishment the daycare has faced in this three-year period is paying two separate $200 fines, according to state records.

Minnesota House Speaker Designate, Rep. Lisa Demuth, a Republican, told KSTP in earlier this year that this is an example of how ‘oversight is incredibly lacking’.

‘You have pages here that are publicly available, with repeated failure to keep hazardous items away from children,’ Demuth said in January. ‘Failure to maintain adequate staff-to-child ratios. Background checks. Failure to keep personnel files. These are repeated violations.’ 

If the Quality Learning Center is found to have been a beneficiary of CCAP funds, the scandal could broaden.

The allegations of fraud at the Quality Learning Center led to a growing number of Minnesota non-profits facing similar claims. 

At the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, the organization claimed to serve tens of thousands of meals to low-income children during the pandemic.

But in a recent court filing, prosecutors allege most of those meals never existed, and instead, the taxpayer money went to luxury homes, cars, jewelry and real estate abroad. According to court documents, the nonprofit misappropriated $250 million.

One housing program in Minnesota ballooned from an expected $2.6 million to $104 million, mostly due to fake billing. Hundreds of providers were reimbursed for services that were never provided.

Another program that was supposed to provide therapy to autistic children did nothing of the sort, according to prosecutors.