Category: News

Thirty new childcare openings will soon be available in Steamboat Springs, Colo. This may not seem like national news, but in this expensive resort town where parents have gone as far as sleeping outside childcare centers in order to secure a spot for their kids, every single new opening likely means the difference between a parent working or not. What’s happening in America’s ski towns has mirrored the problems facing much of American. Costs of living have soared as home prices skyrocketed during the pandemic amid the flight of the wealthy to more remote areas. Both year-round and seasonal resort staffers have been feeling the squeeze, with some taking to sleeping in cars and campers because there’s not enough affordable housing. To read more, click here.

Economic Impacts and Opportunities for Improving Affordability and Access (Full Report)   ABOUT THE AUTHORS Chris Brown is the Vice President of Policy and Research with CSI where he leads the research efforts of CSI to provide insightful, accurate, and actionable information on the implications of public policy issues throughout the state of Colorado. Alexa Eastburg is a Research Analyst with Common Sense Institute. Her experience covers analyzing workforce, crime, and education issues in the state of Colorado. Alethea Gomez is the Director of Programs and Initiatives at Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC). She has extensive experience overseeing large educational institutions in both leadership and administrative capacities, working privately and professionally with families, and creating vision, structure, and growth in the departments she has led. Nicole Riehl has served as the President and CEO of Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC) since September of 2019. Her leadership experience spans across the private and non-profit sectors, with her career beginning as an early childhood teacher at Storagetek’s on-site employee childcare program. TEAMS & FELLOWS STATEMENT CSI is committed to independent, in-depth research that examines the impacts of policies, initiatives, and proposed laws so that Coloradans are educated and informed on issues impacting their lives. CSI’s commitment to institutional independence is rooted in the individual independence of our researchers, economists, and fellows. At the core of CSI’s mission is a belief in the power of the free enterprise system.  Our work explores ideas that protect and promote jobs and the economy, and the CSI team and fellows take part in this pursuit with academic freedom. Our team’s work is driven by data-driven research and evidence. The views and opinions of fellows do not reflect institutional views of CSI. CSI operates independently of any political party and does not take positions. ABOUT COMMON SENSE INSTITUTE Common Sense Institute is a non-partisan research organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of Colorado’s economy. CSI is at the forefront of important discussions concerning the future of free enterprise in Colorado and aims to have an impact on the issues that matter most to Coloradans. CSI’s mission is to examine the fiscal impacts of policies, initiatives, and proposed laws so that Coloradans are educated and informed on issues impacting their lives. CSI employs rigorous research techniques and dynamic modeling to evaluate the potential impact of these measures on the Colorado economy and individual opportunity. Common Sense Institute was founded in 2010 originally as Common Sense Policy Roundtable. CSI’s founders were a concerned group of business and community leaders who observed that divisive partisanship was overwhelming policymaking and believed that sound economic analysis could help Coloradans make fact-based and common sense decisions. ABOUT EXECUTIVES PARTNERING TO INVEST IN CHILDREN Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC) is a group of prestigious business executives partnering to serve as the business community’s non-partisan voice for early childhood. As leaders in their companies and industries, EPIC Members are leaving a legacy of true impact and lasting change by leading efforts to build infrastructure and advance policies that support […]

Denver Business Journal quotes EPIC’s President and CEO, “It likely costs about 20,000 jobs by keeping women in particular from being able to enter the workforce and has a negative economic impact of $2.2 billion,” to read the article on how Colorado will invest in the childcare shortage click here.

Opinion: Pass this bill to realize the promise of early childhood education Voters raised some taxes in 2020 to pay for greater access. House Bill 1295 will put that vote into action, click here to read more in this article by The Colorado Sun, authored by David Merage and Anna Jo Hayes.