These are Canadians in this public domain picture, of course, but Boulder County voters could choose to approve better early childhood care and education in 2026.

At its simplest, Ballot Issue 1A would use a new 2.579 mill Boulder County property tax to pay for more affordable or more available early childhood care and education. It would also help fund increased pay for early childhood educators and staff.

The measure would generate up to $30 million annually for early childhood care and education, with an estimated cost to residential property owners of $110-$120 per year based on median home values. Commercial property owners pay a higher rate than residential, and information from a tax calculator found on the Brighter Start Boulder County website FAQ section says a property assessed at $500,000 would pay about $322 per year.

There is no sunset date in 1A, and it has a “deBrucing” statement that would remove this item from TABOR restrictions on revenue and spending. The measure would pass with a simple majority of 50% (plus one) of the votes from Boulder County.

Why?

For those of us with no kids, we might be surprised in a bad way to learn how much childcare can cost. Supporters of 1A say full-time childcare might cost up to $23,000 per year, which is an expense that might force at least one parent to make tough choices between whether to work at a job or stay home with the kid(s). Below, here is a basic chart showing typical annual costs for a few categories of childcare:

The formal Boulder County resolution to put what is now 1A on the ballot actually does a pretty good job of briefly saying why it’s going to the voters. Readers should check out the entire resolution if they have time, but here are a few top points:

  • The first 5 years of a child’s life are essential for cognitive development, and kids who don’t have access to early child education might fall behind.
  • The expense of child care might keep some parents/guardians from working or advancing careers.
  • Early child educators are paid “26.5% less than K-8 teachers,” and some of them live below the poverty line.
  • Childcare slots for infants and toddlers are “dangerously scarce,” with current shortages of “approximately 1,723 licensed infant slots and 1,357 licensed toddler slots.”
  • It’s not just for the kids, since the resolution claims adequate childcare can help by “increasing parental labor force participation, stabilizing the workforce, and reducing long-term public expenditures on remedial education, health care, and social services.”

How Would the County Use the Funds?

Very basically, the revenue from 1A would go into a dedicated fund, and the county would disburse moneys such as grant awards, tuition assistance, and other subsidies toward the following broad categories:

  • Lowering the cost of child care and preschool for families
  • Increasing pay for educators and staff
  • Expanding capacity at child care facility to be able to handle more kids, and reducing waitlists
  • Transform Boulder County’s system from a fragile, patchwork network into a stable, high-quality ecosystem that meets the needs of families, providers, and employers

For more detailed information, readers might wish to pore through Brighter Start’s Childcare Investment Plan policy proposal, linked here. Again, a few bullet points might help readers get the gist of it:

  • Local funding such as a dedicated county tax can be more stable and dependable than state or federal funding at this time.
  • With a specific local source of funding, people or organizations involved with early childhood care would not need to compete with other organizations in a broader human services pool.
  • The staff turnover rate in Boulder County is typically between 20% and 30% annually. In theory, better wages could keep staff in their jobs longer, and having an experienced and dependable staff should be good for organizations and families alike.
  • One goal of this measure is to help reduce childcare expenses for households at less than $150,000 per year to roughly 7%-15% of household income.

Does Boulder County Offer Childcare Assistance Now?

Boulder County does have a Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), but visitors to its webpage will notice the telling first sentence: “We’re currently on an enrollment freeze.”

CCAP gets funding from the Colorado CCAP (CCCAP), which in turn gets funding from the federal government. The Trump administration announced in January 2026 that is was freezing “$10 billion in child care and social services funding for Colorado, California, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York,” per Colorado Chalkbeat, a decision that at the time threatened a major source of funding for CCCAP. Whether there’s anything in common between the five states listed is perhaps impossible to guess.

Boulder County’s CCAP does still offer childcare assistance for low-income families, but they’re not taking new families at this time. The City of Boulder also has its own Child Care Subsidy Program.

Proponent Points

  • Early childhood education or child care are both becoming too expensive for some families, and this tax would help more families be able to take advantage of these services.
  • Early childhood education is seen by education professionals as essential to a child’s cognitive development and future academic performance.
  • Parents or guardians who can’t afford child care or education might need to sacrifice their own employment or career advancement, which can impact not only the parents but also the broader economy.
  • Adequate and dependable funding for childcare could help put more people to work in childcare positions, and better pay could help these workers better participate in local economies.

Opponent Points

  • This is a new tax that could burden property owners who are on fixed or limited incomes.
  • There is also a property tax increase on the City of Boulder ballot, meaning Boulder residents are facing two increases on the same ballot.
  • Commercial property owners pay a higher rate than residential, which might impact small businesses or force them to pass along the cost through price increases or other measures.
  • There’s no sunset date, which means this tax might last forever unless voters reverse or amend something.

Links to More Information

Richard’s Take

I’ll probably vote for 1A, but in a way like a cheapskate half-heartedly reaching for his wallet while folks are trying to figure out who will pay for the pizza. It’s both a grand venture and a new expense, and I at least hope readers will notice I listed “grand venture” first…

Much is being made about democratic socialism or plain-vanilla socialism right now in the political world. I could get much deeper in the weeds with technical definitions of “socialism,” but for now I’m calling 1A a “tax-funded social program” instead of using any “isms.” For those who want to understand some of my thought process around tax-funded social programs, I highly recommend the book “The Nordic Theory of Everything” by Finnish writer Anu Partanen. Here’s an excerpt of hers from the New York Times in 2019 on her childcare experience in Finland:

“Our child attends a fabulous, highly professional and ethnically diverse public day-care center that amazes us with its enrichment activities and professionalism. The price? About $300 a month — the maximum for public day care, because in Finland day-care fees are subsidized for all families.”

Now, supporters of 1A tell us childcare in Boulder County might run $23,000 per year. But 12 times Partanen’s $300 per month (sure, from 2019) gets her to $3,600. Scandinavian countries certainly pay taxes, but their benefits include some level of free or subsidized childcare, healthcare, higher education, longer vacations and leaves, and more.

One of Partanen’s main themes in “Nordic” is that free or subsidized services can actually increase freedoms, contrary to certain American beliefs maybe baked during the Cold War and the Red Scare. In the case of childcare, having free or affordable services can free up a parent to work or enroll in education, allowing them to earn more money or better themselves professionally. Then, the workforce and businesses probably benefit from the person’s labor or expertise. Supporters of this ballot measure have noted something similar on their website and materials.

And I’m sure some readers are saying “What about the kids?” about now. OK, here goes. This ballot measure should help provide all kinds of benefits for kids, including a better early start on their education and hopefully a more stable and experienced workforce caring for them.

Still, I have to make a few comments. Like many folks who will be voting, I don’t have kids in childcare facilities. I will not be surprised if some number of people without kids look at 1A and say “well, tough, raising a kid is expensive.” I can’t deny thinking initially that it was a bit of a reach for Boulder County to be asking for another new fairly major expense so soon after passing its Behavioral Health tax just last year. As I sort of wrote on another ballot measure – if anyone from “the county” is reading, I have financial needs in my personal life as well. A bunch of them. Honestly, even though I have a lot of love for top-notch childcare, I would like this ballot measure to be the last major ask from the county for a while.

But I do morally believe that how we treat our kids and parents is somewhat of a barometer on the type of society we live in, hence my support even if I seem to have left my wallet in the car.