On Thursday, March 20th, all BVSD schools closed due to a staffing shortage. Over 600 BVSD teachers, counselors, janitors, coaches, principals, vice principals, and lunch staff went to the capital to urge Colorado Governor Jared Polis to reconsider his new plan for distributing school funding. But why did these employees use their few allotted days off to participate in a protest? Is this important enough to shut down the entire district? What exactly is Polis proposing?
A Persistent Problem
Despite being the eighth wealthiest state in the country, Colorado grossly underfunds schools by $4,000 to $4,500 per student per year compared to the national average. This lack of funding is prevalent in every classroom, and according to the State of Education report, teachers are feeling this lack of funds. In 2023 for example, 85% of educators said that the teacher shortage was getting worse, 60% of teachers said they were considering leaving the profession, and a third of them said they were worried about a mass shooting at their school. At a time like this, educators should turn to the state government for help, but it was also reported that only 30% of them felt respected by state lawmakers. Colorado has the money to address these issues and offer students a quality education, but they have chosen not to, and “that’s embarrassing, honestly,” said math teacher Ms. Pfenning, who attended Thursday’s protest. “That the state of Colorado doesn’t value the students enough to pony up the money that it takes to run high-quality public schools.” The state of Colorado’s education system is bad, and teachers are afraid that Polis’s plan to change the way school funding is distributed will make it worse.
Polis’ Plan
Due to Colorado’s slow economic growth, state lawmakers have to cut more than a billion dollars to balance the budget. Currently, Colorado gives money to school districts based on how many students districts have on a rolling 5-year average, and due to Colorado’s declining enrollment, the state is giving schools more money than is allotted for each student. To avoid spending an excess amount of money on schools, Polis plans to count the number of students in each district every year instead of every five so that the amount of money given to each district is in line with the number of students they have. So technically, Polis isn’t proposing a budget cut, so why is there so much backlash?
Why Are Our Teachers Protesting?
While this may not be a budget cut, schools will still lose millions of dollars. According to BVSD’s School Finance Fact Sheet, this reorganization will cost our district an estimated $5,286,465 per year, causing us to lose 55 teachers. As underfunded as our schools are, this will be a huge blow to our education.
What Was The Outcome?
The Governor listened to the protesters. On March 31st, the budget distribution proposal was changed from counting students on a yearly average to a four-year average. This bill also raises school funding from 9.8 billion to 10 billion. Now we’ll have to wait for a decision from Colorado’s Senate.
