Tipton Adaptive Daycare is still filled with colorful plastic chairs, butterfly-adorned cubbies and star mobiles dangling above cribs. But most classrooms were empty of children this week, as the owner of the rural Tipton, Iowa, childcare center prepared to close her business permanently after more than seven years. “I gave up,” says Deborah VanderGaast, the director and founder. At the heart of VanderGaast’s struggle is a problem of basic economics.