Friend, families shouldn’t have to stress about child care. It should be high-quality, reliable, and within reach.

But right now, that’s just not the reality for too many families in Colorado.

That's why I just rolled out my plan to make child care more affordable for Colorado's working families.

But to put it into action, I first need your help to reach my campaign's $5,000 end-of-month goal this Friday. So if you're short on time, I hope you'll chip in $5 or more to help me get there  before I dig in .

Right now, child care for just one infant costs Colorado families nearly $22,000 a year on average – the fifth most expensive nationwide.

Right now, we also face a shortage of licensed child care providers, with only enough capacity to serve 20% of Colorado babies and toddlers. 

Right now, most child care workers aren’t paid a living wage for the demanding and essential job they do.

And right now, Colorado loses out on $2.7 billion each year – since many parents who want to work have to stay home, because they can't find affordable child care.

Our current reality isn't just ridiculous – it's unacceptable. 

But with your help to win this race, I will do everything I can as governor to create opportunities for every family to find affordable, high-quality child care for every child in Colorado from birth to age 5 – and here's how:

When it comes to lowering child care costs for families and expanding provider capacity, I'm talking about starting a loan fund to help providers give affordable care to working families, strengthening the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, offering tax incentives for small business owners starting and running new child care centers and empowering home-based providers with essential assistance and community resources.

When it comes to ensuring child care workers receive the fair compensation and benefits they deserve, I'm talking about supporting local efforts to subsidize wages, expanding access to affordable health insurance across the entire workforce, making Care Worker Tax Credits permanent and scaling programs that make it easier to become a child care worker.

And when it comes to cutting the red tape that creates unintentional delays and costs without compromising quality, I'm talking about a systematic overhaul of our state's licensing system, removing barriers to home-based care options and creating a locally driven, statewide portal and common app system that makes finding affordable child care easier.

This plan is guided by my belief that we all share a responsibility to look out for one another and for the next generation.

But real progress for working families and future generations demands that we all step up, and it has to start from the grassroots. That means I can't make any of this happen without you.

So if you're in a position to contribute today, friend, I'd really appreciate it. Every contribution of $5, $25 or more ahead of my end-of-month deadline this Friday will help my campaign reach more of Colorado's workers and families – and together, I believe we can make Colorado the best place to live, work and raise a family.

Thanks for reading, and take care,

Michael