Life Inside the Childcare Gap: A System Built Without a Definition

Life Inside the Childcare Gap is an investigative series by Molly Cotner examining how Pueblo’s child care system quietly shapes the lives of families, workers and the broader community. Across six installments, the series explores cost, access, workforce conditions and the often invisible networks that hold families together when formal systems fall short.

In this first installment, A System Built Without a Definition, Cotner asks a foundational question: What is child care? The answer is more complex than it seems. From licensed centers to family, friend and neighbor care, child care operates across formal and informal spaces, yet public policy often treats it as a private burden rather than shared infrastructure.

Drawing on statewide data showing Colorado families spend a significant share of their household income on care and that many Pueblo parents report struggling to access child care, this episode traces how the system developed without a clear definition of responsibility. It examines how affordability gaps intersect with low wages, particularly in Pueblo, where many common occupations do not pay enough to make child care financially worthwhile.

Listeners will come away with:

• A clearer understanding of how child care is defined — and why that definition matters

• Insight into the economic tradeoffs facing Pueblo families

• Context for how local and statewide policies shape everyday decisions

• A framework for understanding child care as infrastructure that supports the entire community

This episode sets the foundation for the series, inviting listeners to reconsider child care not as an individual family issue, but as a structural system that influences health, workforce participation and the future of Pueblo itself.

To share your experience with child care in Pueblo, contact Molly at childcare@pueblostarjournal.org.