In the Roaring Fork Valley, there’s a popular corner of Facebook devoted to child care. How are people finding it? How are people affording it? In one thread, a parent said that they were living with an empty fridge. Others say they rely on unlicensed providers, sometimes raising safety concerns.
It was those kinds of situations that led a group of nonprofits and parents from Aspen to Parachute to work on a solution to the region's extreme child care shortage. In 2017, they created the Confluence Early Childhood Education Coalition (CECE) with the goal of boosting funding for child care via a 0.25% sales tax in Garfield, Eagle, and Pitkin counties.
The sales tax would create a pool of money to help subsidize families’ child care costs and offer grants to child care providers, helping lower their tuition.
In March, commissioners from all three counties approved the coalition’s service plan to create a new special tax district.
The coalition must gather 200 signatures across the proposed district for their initiative to get on ballots in November.
According to Maggie Tiscornia, executive director of CECE, the coalition has already collected more than double that number, but is aiming for 1,000 signatures to help educate their voter base about the need for more affordable child care in the valley and build momentum behind their initiative.
Only 44% of kids in the Roaring Fork Valley have access to licensed child care providers, while downvalley, from Glenwood Springs to Parachute, it’s just 29%. That makes the region a “child care desert,” said Tiscornia.
Families who are lucky enough to find child care face exorbitant rates, she said, adding that child care tuition for a family with two children ranges from $2,500 to $3,800 per month, or an average yearly cost of $17,000 per kid. That puts child care costs right up there with housing for families’ biggest expenses.
If voters approve the special district, it would be the first of its kind in Colorado, but for some families, the measure will come too late. Tiscornia has heard from people who’ve decided to leave the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys because they can’t find affordable childcare.
“We are seeing that families have to make those really tough decisions,” she said.
