Education

This study, sponsored by the Colorado Department of Education???s Center for At-Risk Education, utilized available data to examine the relationships between adult educational attainment, the Bell Policy Center's Gateways of Opportunity, and academic achievement of students.

A Denver Post commentary summarizing the findings of the Bell Policy Center's 2005 State of Opportunity Report.

After more than a decade of declining state investment, Colorado???s system of public higher education and adult training is nearing the breaking point. The implications are severe for our families, our businesses, our communities and our future. How did this happen? What is at stake for Coloradans and their communities? And what can be done about it? This booklet offers straightforward answers to these questions.

A Boulder Daily Camera commentary laying out the Bell Policy Center's 2006 agenda to: close the achievement gap, get more low-income students into college, promote self-sufficiency and expand health care coverage.

A Point & Counterpoint in the Rocky Mountain News analyzing the Bell Policy Center's Education White Papers, which look at college accessibility and affordability.

In Alamosa and Huerfano counties, for a family of four (two adults, one preschooler and one school-age child) to be completely self sufficient, their income must exceed the median earnings of a worker with an associate degree.

A Boulder Daily Camera commentary by the Boulder Valley Board of Education president explaining the difficult financial situation Colorado schools are in, despite the passage of Amendment 23, because of TABOR's funding restrictions.

A letter to the Denver Post editorial board commending it for correctly pointing out that the Colorado Commission on Higher Education's (CCHE) new performance contracts will not solve higher education's financial crisis, but criticizing the paper for failing to mention that these contracts also fail to ensure increased access to higher education for low-income and minority students.

A Boulder Daily Camera commentary lamenting the poor state of high school counseling in Colorado, where the student-to-counselor ratio is high and some minority and low-income students are discouraged from going to college by their counselors.

A Boulder Daily Camera commentary criticizing the state's new policy on college performance contracts, which do not include specific accountability measures to ensure colleges increase access to low-income and minority students.