The silence that enveloped Mile High Early Learning’s Northeast Early Learning Center in Denver on Friday signals a troubling trend for early childhood education in Colorado.
After the last students and teachers departed, the center has shut its doors to a multitude of children, unable to sustain the financial strain that has led to the closure of its northeastern location and the elimination of 38 slots, the equivalent of five classrooms.
Mile High Early Learning, which typically serves hundreds of children from low-income families, is not the only institution facing these challenges.
Family Star Montessori is also experiencing significant financial pressure, having cut eight staff members and scaled back its operational hours.
Plans are underway for them to close a classroom in August, sell one of their two buildings, and relocate to save costs.
The roots of this crisis stem from a recent freeze in the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, which has been exacerbated by the implementation of changes made by the Biden administration.
Advocates of early childhood education and various providers have been warning about the repercussions of these funding cuts, expressing growing fears that more facilities could reduce programming or shut down entirely.
Executive Director of Family Star Montessori, Lindsay McNicholas, voiced uncertainty about the center’s survival amid these ongoing funding cuts, stating, “We’re going to try. We’re fighting real hard to figure out how we do that.”
The enrollment freeze, a byproduct of what was intended to be supportive federal rule changes, has led to thousands of Colorado families bearing the brunt of this situation.
Effective from March 2024, these new regulations require families benefiting from subsidies to pay a reduced out-of-pocket fee — now only 7% of their income, instead of the previous 10%.
While these changes aim to relieve some financial burden on families, they come without any federal funding, resulting in an estimated annual cost of nearly $70 million for the state.
Compounding this issue are the newly mandated higher reimbursements for child care providers, following a federal review indicating that Colorado’s rates were inadequate.
Counties, feeling the financial pressure and uncertainty regarding these changes, have begun to halt enrollment.
New families are not being accepted into the assistance program, creating a backlog of at least 6,600 Colorado children on waitlists across 24 counties, worsening the crisis highlighted earlier this year when 5,700 children were reported impacted.
Parenting and professional advocates, including Jennifer Stedron from Early Milestones Colorado, emphasize that this crisis goes beyond individual families.
Stedron pointed out that affordable early childhood education is crucial not just for parents to work, but as a significant contributor to the overall functioning of Colorado’s economy, insisting on the need to prioritize child care as a central economic component, not merely an “afterthought.”
As fear mounts regarding the possibility of future cuts, the continuity of child care support remains uncertain.
The Biden administration’s new rules currently hang in the balance of a potential reversal under the Trump administration.
However, it is unclear how any changes will affect the dire enrollment freezes currently being experienced in Colorado.
Sarah Dawson, with the state’s Department of Early Childhood, clarified, “We really need to learn what their philosophy is going to be about the program,” indicating the ongoing uncertainty in planning for the future.
The profound financial implications for centers like Mile High Early Learning are stark.
Since the onset of the enrollment freeze, they have incurred a loss of roughly $270,000, with forecasts predicting further losses of $408,000 in the next year and up to $600,000 in 2027.
Facing this bleak financial outlook, Mile High Early Learning made the difficult decision to close one of its seven Denver locations, affecting the available slots by nearly 40 families.
President and CEO Pamela Harris shared her worries about the future of children reliant on these programs.
“Children aren’t going to have special intervention services as early as they might need,” Harris lamented, emphasizing the long-term consequences of such cuts.
McNicholas confirmed the gravity of the situation at Family Star Montessori, which currently operates two schools and a home-based learning program for approximately 250 children.
She mentioned that their budget has suffered a $30,000 blow every month due to the enrollment freeze, amounting to a projected total loss of around $400,000 this year alone.
With financial struggles mounting, McNicholas is contemplating proactive measures like selling one of their aging facilities to help secure a more sustainable future.
It’s evident that the sustenance of early childhood education is vital not only for the well-being of families but also for the state’s labor force.
Investing in early childhood education lays the groundwork for future generations, providing children with necessary intervention services and ultimately reducing long-term societal costs.
“When we have support for early child care in the state of Colorado, we can have the labor that is required to do the necessary and essential functions of our society,” McNicholas stated, underscoring the integral link between child care support and workforce sustainability.
As the situation unfolds, the urgency to bring attention back to early childhood education and support its vital role in shaping both children’s futures and Colorado’s economic health cannot be overstated.
image source from:coloradosun