As communities continue to recover from the pandemic, the need for committed and talented teachers, workforce readiness programs, and access to mental health services in our schools has never been higher.
While Colorado’s public education system will receive a one time injection of funding through the American Rescue Plan, there remains a $10 Billion funding shortage accumulated over more than a decade. Next year schools will once again be underfunded and be forced to make cuts to teacher pay, critical programs and services.
According to last year’s Colorado Public Education Survey, nearly 50% of Colorado voters don’t think that Colorado schools have the financial resources they need, 64% approve of re-allocating tax revenue to public education, and 63% of Colorado voters support a proposal that would increase K12 funding.
Additional funding can be used to increase the pay of hardworking teachers to help keep them in the classroom, reduce class sizes, provide quality STEAM education as well as vocational education and career training that will prepare students for the workforce, and increase access to mental health services in schools.
Read the full report here.