By Jim Martin

The child-care crisis just keeps getting worse.

“The child-care system is broken in this country. Families can’t afford the high cost. Child-care providers cannot sustain their businesses. Caregivers’ wages are still below self-sufficiency standards,” said Colorado’s Bell Policy Center, which did a deep dive into the subject.

In other words, little about the child-care crisis has changed in three years, with pandemic effects still looming.

It’s a vicious cycle: Many parents left the workforce during the pandemic in order to stay home and take care of their children. They still haven’t returned to work. That deeply affects our nation’s economy.

The lack of enough affordable, accessible and quality child care prevents America from performing at the level it should, which pushes up inflation rates.

The Hill publication said affordable child care is key to getting people back to work.

It’s one of the top reasons why workers, particularly women, are not just leaving but also staying out of the labor force — child-care needs remain unmet.

More than half of Americans live in a child-care desert, where there are three or more children under 5 for every child-care spot available.

The nationwide shortage of child-care openings poses a $122 billion economic threat to the United States, according to ReadyNation, a coalition of business leaders who have come together to advocate for child care. It includes $78 billion in lost earnings and job search expenses for families, $23 billion lost by employers because of productivity challenges and $21 billion in lower federal, state and local tax revenue.

Forbes magazine has written that about 16% of the U.S. workforce (about 26.8 million people) need to have child care so that they can work. In total, about 12.3 million children in the United States have working parents, but there are only about 8.7 million licensed child care spaces available according to Child Care Aware of America’s latest report.

A shrinking workforce is driving inflation and damaging the U.S. economy, as well as adding stress to family life.

That’s why I’m hoping the Early Childhood Alliance — a Longmont-based group of more than 70 concerned citizens that have been working on a local child-care challenge for about three and a half years — will succeed in its effort to place a measure on the November ballot that would establish a taxing district to meet the need for more child care, primarily in Boulder and Weld counties.

The proposed region for this “Early Childhood Development Special District” would encompass areas of the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain school districts that are in these counties.

A special taxing district is a government entity that collects tax revenue and redistributes it to support a public good. The district would be governed by a five-person board. The board would be chosen by voters and its members would have to live in the special district.

What? Another tax? Yes, because of the economic benefits. Yes, because the district also will spend money on renovating existing child-care centers, and building more of them and increasing workers’ salaries.

And yes, the alliance’s goals will tie in neatly with Gov. Jared Polis’ and the Legislature’s upcoming free, universal preschool throughout Colorado. Colorado families with 4-year-olds will have access to free preschool in fall 2023.

The program promises 4-year-olds at least 10 hours a week of tuition-free preschool in public school classrooms or private settings, such as child-care centers, churches or homes licensed to provide preschool education. The funding will come from proceeds of the nicotine tax, Proposition EE, that Colorado voters approved in 2020.

To date, more than 29,000 families have signed up for a 4-year-old preschool spot, and more than 1,800 providers are participating.

The alliance has lofty goals, starting with providing “a dedicated funding stream for regional early childhood services for birth-5 years, with special emphasis on birth-3,” the alliance said. The goals include nurturing children from birth; ensuring that parents, child-care and early childhood educators have the training and resources they need; and that they have access to early care, mental health and developmental services.

The alliance desires that “every child insured from birth to be school-ready when they enter kindergarten.”

The alliance shared some more expected results if the special district takes flight.

• The U.S. economy could get a $1 trillion boost in 10 years if female labor market participation grows to the levels of other countries. Right now, too many women don’t work because there’s nobody to care for their children.

• More child-care opportunities later mean schools will need less retention, remediation and special services.

• More parents, especially women, will be able to work if they wish. Right now, 29% of prime-age workers have children under 6. How often have we heard that restaurants, retail stores and other categories can’t find workers? Well, we can help reverse that trend by providing good child care that makes parents comfortable with returning to the workforce.

• And the alliance looked far into the future, pointing out that more child care can prevent criminal behavior by children and reduce the need for government assistance.

There’s plenty more evidence to prove that we must improve our child-care system, such as the fact that 25% of parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child-care breakdowns.

In addition, in 34 states (including Colorado) and Washington, D.C., the average cost of child care is more than in-state public college tuition. Turnover rates for child-care professionals are as high as 40% in some states.

The average paid salary for early childhood providers is a mere $37,500 annually.

The Early Childhood Alliance is on to something here and I hope you’ll give it a fair hearing.

Jim Martin can be reached at jimmartinesq@gmail.com.