In this report, the Colorado Fiscal Institute analyzed the potential effects of making child care affordable for parents of young children. Our analysis showed:

• Colorado families who have access to free child care earn nearly $10,000 more on average than families who don’t have that access.
• Free child care leads to mothers working more, and if universal child care was available it would boost the labor participation rate of Colorado moms by 11 percentage points.
• Rural Colorado has the most to gain from increasing access to free child care.
• The median wage in most Colorado counties is not enough to make child care worth the high cost.
• Affordable child care policy solutions include expanding the Early Childhood Educator Tax Credit, ensuring subsidy rates reflect the true cost of care, and moving towards full-time early learning for all ages.
• One of the biggest barriers to equitably paying for these investments is Colorado’s TABOR law, which prohibits the most equitable financing solutions.

Read the full report

Read a two-page fact sheet with the most relevant data