COLORADO SPRINGS, CO—Today, community leaders announced a KIDS’ Strong Start campaign to raise awareness about the depth of the childcare crisis in El Paso County and how important childcare is to everyone. El Paso County, home to more than 46,000 children under age five, has only 18,300 childcare spots for these children. Another 16,000+ spots are necessary to meet the needs of families.
“To meet the childcare challenge, it’s going to take all of us working together. Community leaders are needed to champion a full range of sustained, strategic approaches,” said SherryLynn Boyles, CEO of Joint Initiatives for Youth + Families (Joint Initiatives).
Over the past year, community leaders across the sectors of large employers, small businesses, healthcare, government, the faith community, and early childhood education have engaged in addressing the many reasons for the child care crisis.
The underlying problems causing the crisis include a lack of childcare funding, an underpaid early childhood workforce, and the high cost of childcare for parents.
“Parents pay for childcare, which means the quality of education for young children varies based on parents’ income,” said Margaret Sabin, recently-retired President of Children’s Hospital Colorado. “Let’s think about who parents are of young children—often they are young people who may be just starting careers who haven’t had a chance to build a nest egg.”
“In Colorado, the average cost of childcare per child is $20,000 per year. That is a major cost for families, often as much as paying a mortgage and can be more than putting a child through college,” Sabin continued.
According to Sabin, the broken childcare funding system brings additional challenges. “Early childhood teachers are severely underpaid. The average salary for these teachers is $14.22/hour, less than $30,000 per year. Yet these are often certified teachers.”
The shortage of childcare is only half of the story; the other half is that quality childcare helps kids get a strong start, setting a positive course for a child’s life.
“If we want children to thrive, we have to start with their first five years because this is when 90% of brain development occurs. Communities cannot afford to leave children’s education—who are at this critical age—to chance,” said Liz Denson, CEO of Early Connections Learning Centers based in Colorado Springs.
“Children’s lives are changed for the better when their childcare is high quality,” said Denson, adding that children are more likely to graduate high school, enroll in college or technical school, earn higher wages over their lifetime, and have better health outcomes.
“Quality childcare is not only an investment in a child, but a good business decision. When a business’s employees do well, the overall economy is affected too,” said Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce. “Research shows that investment in early childhood education means higher labor productivity and reduced health care and criminal justice costs.”
The KIDS’ Strong Start campaign will bring awareness to:
- How the cost and lack of spots is putting a strain on young parents
- how our overall economic health and future are impacted
- the importance of quality childcare
- how childcare solutions can help everyone in the community.
“If you care about living in a community in which our children are thriving as a result of access to quality childcare, if you care about the impact that thriving children have on our economy and quality of life, then please join the 100 organizations that are working to address our childcare challenge,” Boyles concluded.
To learn more about KIDS’ Strong Start or to join a team addressing the childcare crisis, visit the KIDS’ Strong Start website at KIDSStrongStart.org.
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Joint Initiatives for Youth + Families, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, serves as the foundation and backbone agency for the purpose of bringing together agencies and systems that serve the region’s children, youth, and families. JI catalyzes collaboration for positive, sustainable, and higher-impact services for young people 0-21 and their families. JI focuses its work through two programs. The Foundations program builds the early childhood education (childcare) system, including overseeing the new Universal Preschool Program for El Paso County. The Pathways program provides ongoing multi-agency support to individual youth who are struggling and their families.