Although Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (“EPIC”) agrees with Kelly Sloan that creating child care savings accounts could help families afford quality child care, that mechanism cannot serve, contrary to Sloan’s assertion, as an alternative to increasing direct public investment in child care (“SLOAN | Time has come for child-care savings accounts in Colorado,” Aug. 6). Instead, the economics of child care – for both families and providers – requires an “all of the above” strategy to ensure that high-quality care is both available and affordable for all Colorado families.

Certainly, savings accounts should be part of the solution. EPIC supported state Sen. Owen Hill’s savings account bill during the last session and it looks forward to the bill’s reintroduction, both because it would provide tax credits to middle class families to help them save for child care expenses and because it would permit employers to contribute to their employees’ savings accounts.

However, the addition of savings accounts alone will not be sufficient. Many young families will not be able to set aside money or have an employer willing to fund their savings accounts.

Moreover, savings accounts will do little to address the problem that, for many Coloradans, quality child care is not available at any price. Indeed, 46 percent of Coloradans live in “child care deserts,” where demand for licensed care is at least three times greater than supply.

To solve both the affordability and the availability issues, the child care industry’s fundamental economic problem must be addressed. Unlike K-12, child care is funded primarily by parents; and, even though parents’ tuition payments are high, those payments do not supply providers with enough revenue to cover the costs of providing high-quality child care.

For example, providers cannot afford the wages required to attract and retain enough qualified workers. According to the Department of Labor and Employment, child care teachers are paid an average of $11.47 per hour – more than $11 per hour below elementary teachers. Not surprisingly, as reported by the Colorado Early Childhood Workforce Survey 2017, child care teachers leave their jobs four times more frequently than elementary teachers. At the same time, the pipeline for new teachers is drying up: Community college enrollment in early childhood education programs declined 30 percent in the last two years for which data is available.

These economic and workforce realities discourage providers from staying in, and others from entering, the child-care business. And providers who cannot adequately staff their present facilities cannot increase capacity or open new facilities.

Dealing with both parents’ and providers’ economic issues – and making high-quality child care available and affordable – will require an all-of-the-above approach that increases direct public investment in addition to creating tax-favored devices like the child care savings account.

The Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (“CCCAP”) would be a good place to start. Although Colorado has been steadily increasing its contribution for several years and a recent increase in federal support will extend benefits to another 2,000 to 3,000 children, several thousand eligible families are still not receiving subsidies. Increased CCCAP funding could also be used to boost the rates paid to providers, which would help them pay the wages required to attract and retain qualified workers.

Sloan’s criticism of CCCAP is unfounded. Families supported by CCCAP can, in fact, choose the type of care they prefer, including faith-based, family setting, licensed or license-exempt, for profit or non-profit. And the data shows that child care subsidies increase family income by facilitating employment. Subsidies also enable parents to choose higher-quality child care which, in turn, aids school readiness.

But, regardless of the exact mechanisms chosen, Colorado will not be able to make high-quality, affordable child care available to all who want it unless it increases direct public investment in addition to developing new tax credits.

David HammondMember, EPIC Board of DirectorsDenver

Gloria HigginsPresident, EPICDenver