Hundreds of teachers and supporters gathered at the Colorado State Capitol Thursday to protest changes to the state鈥檚 education funding formula.
The event closed schools in some districts. But attendees said it was necessary.
The demonstration on the eve of Spring Break for schools in Denver, Boulder and elsewhere caused a ripple across Colorado. It also came just as legislators and the governor's office are drafting the state's budget for the upcoming fiscal year 鈥� a task that involves closing a $1 billion funding gap.
The message to Colorado leaders is that, too often, the state's budget is balanced on the backs of public schools.
"The idea of making a little inconvenience on families is hopefully going to open some people's eyes up to the inconvenience this has been on education 鈥� not this year, not next year, but for a long, long time we've been underfunding education in this state," said Sean Costello, a social studies teacher at Fairview High School in Boulder. "People need to realize the value in education, and you got to put your money where your mouth is."
Gov. Jared Polis has proposed recalculating district funding. Instead of averaging enrollment over five years, he wants to do an annual count of students and allocate funding accordingly, an approach used in many other states.
The change is meant to save the state $150 million, money that would have gone to schools with declining enrollment. Polis' office says it'll be offset by increases in per-pupil funding totaling $138 million.
But teachers say it鈥檒l mean less money, larger classes and fewer resources, especially in struggling districts.
"Already my department is down a teacher," said Kira Miskella, who teaches English in the Weld RE-1 District. "We're going to have much bigger class sizes next year, and then, you know, we are graded on test scores. And when you cut teachers and class sizes get bigger, test scores are going to go down more, and then more teachers lose jobs. It's just a vicious cycle."
Organizers wanted to get 2,000 people to the demonstration, and they appeared to reach that goal. The crowd, many in red shirts, covered the west steps of the Capitol. At least four districts canceled classes for the day, and Denver shut many schools.
"I feel like the sacrifice is worth it," said Emily Alexander, a Denver parent who brought her 7-year-old son along. "I think that a cut is a cut, no matter how you sort of spin it or where you take it from. ... Our kids are too important and money needs to be spent."
Some who couldn't make it to Denver demonstrated in their hometowns. In Garfield County, a group of teachers from Carbondale Middle School waved signs outside the school at 8 a.m. as parents dropped off kids. The signs urged Polis not to make budget cuts to K-12 schools. Most drivers either honked or waved enthusiastically at the teachers.
鈥淭here is a lot on teachers' minds,鈥� said Lisa Dameron, an instructional coach at Carbondale Middle School. 鈥淲e are all very stressed for a multitude of reasons. We want to focus on the kids and educating them and having to do the same job with fewer dollars makes everything harder.鈥�
CPR's Bente Berkeland contributed to this report.
