k-12 education

By Carol McGraw and Kristina Iodice
The Gazette

Schools have cut budgets for several years, and the choices of what goes next are running out.

The classroom might be the target.

"To some extent, you get what you pay for, said Glenn Gustafson, Colorado Springs School District 11 finance director. "If we want to have the lowest-funded education system in the United States, then be prepared for the consequences of that."

Officials want to keep looming cuts out of the classrooms, but can they?

The fifteenth and final round of Colorado Student Assessment Program scores released August 3rd shows that while overall student performance has improved, Colorado's minority and low-income students continue to face significant and persistent achievement gaps.

Click here for pdf version

It still feels like summer, but most of Colorado's kids are already back at school. General Fund is back at school, too, and working harder than ever just to make the grade.

In previous emails we talked about how General Fund is struggling to keep his obligations to college students, Medicaid patients and other Coloradans while revenues are slipping. And we've discussed how he may have to take on more responsibility for roads and bridges.

Big Government backers, The Bell Policy Center, have come out with what we first thought was a weeks-late April Fools joke, but instead appears to be a sad attempt to claim illegal immigration is in fact a net positive for Colorado's economy and taxpayers.

"New research shows that undocumented immigrants in Colorado are a significant contributor to the state's economy and that undocumented immigrants contribute as much in sales, property and income taxes as they cost in K-12 education and other mandated services."

A proposed temporary tax bailout for education and a bill that could give parents a big tool to force closure of failing schools rolled out at the Colorado Capitol Monday.