21-03-2025
Thousands of teachers rally over education funding at Colorado Capitol
DENVER (KDVR) — Teachers from across Colorado packed out the state Capitol Thursday for the Statewide Day of Action rally coordinated by the Colorado Education Association. They came out to tell lawmakers not to touch school funding.
Educators made it clear that they wanted to make a statement; coming to the Capitol to rally in droves. After speaking to lawmakers, it appears their protest may have worked.
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'Public school is our right. That is why we have to fight,' the teachers cried on the west lawn of the Colorado State Capitol.
'Governor Polis is going to cut $150 million to our education funding which is already in deficit and that's a problem. Then we are being threatened with cutting the Department of Ed, which supports our sped students and Title I schools which is also really important for everyone. So all these threats, are not good for our community, our students and our staff. So that's why I made this sign,' said Megan Baker, a teacher in Adams County.
The cut Baker is talking about is the governor's average student count proposal. Right now, the state goes off of a four- to five-year average student count per district. In light of declining enrollment, the governor has proposed using only one year's enrollment at a time; he said Colorado is the only state that does funding this way.
Lawmakers working on the budget quickly threw water on that suggestion Thursday just before the rally kicked off.
'The elimination of averaging is off the table. That was an idea that came from the governor and it is an idea that has been pretty roundly rejected here on the second floor,' Joint Budget Committee Chair Jeff Bridges said from the Senate floor. 'We have, as a budget committee, voted to set aside an additional $150 million of general fund for K-12 public education this year. That's a vote we've already made and that is the dollar amount we would set aside regardless of whatever formula it is the education bill that is forthcoming would move forward with. So, we have set aside the general fund commitment, anything else is a conversation about the state ed fund. There will, 100% guaranteed be an increase in per-pupil funding this year. So just so everyone knows we are having these conversations. That is the baseline we are starting from, welcome to your capitol.'
Bridges' words were welcome news for Colorado Education Association President Kevin Vick.
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'I think it shows that our efforts to this point have been effective and we just have to keep the gas on to make sure the legislature holds to that promise. From our minds, we don't feel like we can let up. It's a lot of session left and we gotta make sure the legislature is sticking to that,' Vick said.
Speaking with FOX31 this afternoon, the governor seemingly walked back that unpopular concept surrounding the student count.
'I think what he was referring to was my particular proposal which I don't think anybody ever thought that what I proposed would be adopted without any changes. If you look at how we are increasing funding for schools, a big part of that is that we are making sure we are not going to be funding students who are not there,' Polis said. 'I would veto any budget that cut education funding. I would never sign a budget that did. This is a very tough budget year, we put education first so we have increases both in the total amount spent on education and just as importantly $350 per student increase which means better teacher pay; better, smaller class sizes.'
While the governor looks to ensure there will not be any education cuts as lawmakers negotiate a tight this budget year. The governor did tell FOX31 other areas like healthcare are being looked at.
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