Educators rally for funding support

    Local education advocates turned out for a rally in Holyoke City Park Tuesday, March 20, to heighten awareness for funding issues surrounding education in the state of Colorado.
    Holyoke School District Superintendent John McCleary and Northeast BOCES director Bret Miles led the rally, educating those attending about two subjects.
    McCleary talked about the Kids Matter Too project, launched to connect residents with lawmakers to build support for legislative funding decisions to increase resources for Colorado’s local school districts.
    Miles addressed the Great Schools, Thriving Communities ballot initiative, noting signatures are being solicited to put the school funding question (Initiative No. 93) on the November ballot in Colorado.
    McCleary cited the budget surplus due to the robust economy, asking participants to contact State Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg and Rep. Jon Becker to ask for their help to prioritize education funding in Colorado.
    The state budget is growing by $1.2 billion, as identified last week in the March Economic Forecast, said McCleary.
    At this point, McCleary said Gov. John Hickenlooper is only saying he will allocate an additional $200 million to the state education fund for 2018-19.
    While this seems like a lot of money, McCleary pointed out it’s only 16 percent of the $1.2 billion increase, while education is over 37 percent of the state’s budget.
    In asking for letters or emails to be sent to Becker or Sonnenberg, or better yet, the governor’s office, McCleary said, “Tell them we expect more. Our kids deserve more.”
    Miles elaborated on the background of the Kids Matter Too coalition, an ad hoc group of Colorado school districts that is calling on lawmakers to allocate a greater percentage of these resources to benefit students.
    Twelve Northeast BOCES school districts joined others around the state to launch the coalition. Districts hosted rallies such as the one in Holyoke to raise awareness of the needs of their students and schools.
    Rally information throughout the state noted that school districts are coping with a teacher shortage crisis, shrinking funds for special education and inadequate mental health services.
    Miles pointed out that Colorado is 50th in teacher salary competitiveness, 49th in number of new teachers entering classrooms, 41st in pupil-teacher ratio and 42nd in per pupil spending.
    Only Oklahoma and Arizona spend less than Colorado on special education services. And budget pressures have decimated the ranks of school counselors, causing the counselor-student ratio to widen, leaving fewer resources for kids at all levels of schooling.
    Kids Matter Too touts these areas for needed funds and seeks to inform legislators to help secure education funding.
    
Signatures needed
    Informing the rallygoers about Initiative No. 93, Miles solicited support for signing petitions to put the school funding initiative on the ballot in November.
    The initiative addresses local needs and creates sustainable support for schools and relief to the state budget.
    Miles explained that the intiative creates a tax on federal taxable income above $150,000 and on corporations.
    The initiative makes funding more sustainable for schools by locking in property tax rates after lowering them for everyone.
    It also requires that the revenue from the income tax increases be deposited in a Public Education Fund, only to be used in support of public schools. It additionally requires accountability on public dollars.
    Senate District No. 1 seeks to get 3,000 signatures for putting the iniative on the ballot. Statewide, 98,492 valid signatures are needed. The goal is to obtain 120,000 to account for mistakes, nonregistered voters, etc.
    With the passing of Amendment 71 in 2016, to get an initiative on the Colorado ballot, signatures must be obtained from 2 percent of registered voters in each of the 35 Senate districts.
    Petitions are available for signing from Miles, McCleary and Holyoke School Board member Summer Maloney.