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Hundreds of teachers rally to protect schools at the Colorado Capitol as lawmakers look for cuts [1]
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Date: 2025-03-20
Thousands of people — including hundreds of teachers from districts across Colorado — descended on the Capitol on Thursday demanding that state lawmakers devise a long-term plan to put more money into schools and stop perennial funding cuts.
Teachers clad in red, signifying “Red for Ed,” joined a rally organized by the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. Ahead of Thursday’s protest, some Colorado districts — including Boulder Valley School District and Adams 12 Five Star Schools — canceled classes for the day because of the high number of teachers who have called in to take a personal day to attend the rally. In Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, about two-thirds of schools are closed due to the protest.
The crowd, which continued growing throughout the morning and early afternoon, started chants that accused the state of providing inadequate education funding.
“You left us no choice. We have to use our teacher voice,” they shouted in front of the Capitol.
The rally comes as lawmakers have been scrambling to fill a $1.2 billion state budget deficit, with funding cuts to education appearing imminent.
“I think educators are at this point where we have been bearing the brunt of budget shortfalls for the last 15 years and, because of that, we’re not in a position to absorb any more cuts from the state, particularly in light of what may be coming from the federal government in terms of inconsistent or a lack of funding,” CEA President Kevin Vick told The Colorado Sun.
Among the educators who joined the rally were husband and wife Tara and Nicholas Kawalec, both teachers at STEM Launch in Thornton.
“Why don’t we have money for education?,” asked Tara, who has taught for 20 years. “Our ideals are all out of whack. We’re worrying about the wrong thing and kids are our future of this country. Why don’t we want them to have the best education that they can? What are your priorities if they’re not taking care of our future generations?”
Teachers and their supporters hold signs at a rally outside of the Colorado Capitol. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)
House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, said she understands teachers’ concerns and is currently working on drafting a school funding proposal into legislation that would scale back a new funding formula for schools next year, resulting in less money flowing to districts across the state.
The formula was initially designed to pump an additional $500 million into schools over six years and fund schools based on an average of their student counts over four years. McCluskie now wants to keep that four-year averaging tool in place and extend the rollout of the new formula to seven years.
“By slowing the implementation of the new formula, we don’t need quite as much of our state education fund,” McCluskie told The Sun. “This will help us get through this budget year and ensure that the implementation of the new formula is sustainable.”
The state education fund is a kind of bank account for education that ensures Colorado can meet its constitutional obligation to increase education spending every year. The fund holds reserves for education spending and also supports a variety of school programs.
Her plan would give all districts at least as much funding for next year as the amount they received for the current school year.
McCluskie’s proposal would put total education spending for the next school year at more than $10 billion, up from the nearly $9.8 billion that went to schools this year.
The crowd at the Colorado Capitol shortly after the protest began Thursday morning. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)
Still, schools would receive $41 million less under her formula than if lawmakers were to push the new school funding formula into full effect next year.
“We are working to meet the pressures of the ’25-’26 budget, so we are trying to implement the new formula, help school districts realize some additional dollars with the implementation of that formula, drive more equity into the system this year and do that in just a slightly slimmer way than we had proposed last year because of the budget challenges,” McCluskie said.
Gov. Jared Polis has put a separate school funding proposal on the table that would increase year-over-year education spending by $111 million, according to state budget staff. Polis is recommending that the state end its practice of averaging, which buffers districts experiencing declining enrollment by funding schools based on an average of their student counts over five years. His proposal would give schools close to $9.9 billion next year and would save the state about $147 million. In an email sent Wednesday, his office pledged to put those dollars back into education or keep them in the state education fund “to cover future school funding increases.”
McCluskie’s proposal represents “a compromise” in an especially difficult budget year, said Heather Tritten, president and CEO of the nonprofit Colorado Children’s Campaign.
“We feel like it strikes a good middle ground and there’s been a lot of negotiation to get to this place,” Tritten said, adding that it’s important to be “really realistic about where we are with the budget.”
Some lawmakers, including state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican and member of the Joint Budget Committee, have argued that the state can’t afford to begin the new formula next year, as originally planned.
“The reality is the state needs to stop spending so much darn money,” Kirkmeyer told The Sun. “We need to stop overspending. We need to fund our priorities.”
Kirkmeyer is particularly concerned about the sustainability of the state education fund. If lawmakers deplete that fund in the next few years, she wonders where the state will turn should Colorado hit a recession.
The JBC recently approved a plan to set aside $150 million from the state’s general fund, some of which would be used to help preserve the state education fund.
Kirkmeyer said it would be smarter for the state to keep the old school funding formula in place next year because it’s the most affordable option for the state in the tight budget year. She noted that she is committed to funding education to the level required by the state constitution.
Vick, of CEA, said he is “encouraged” by McCluskie’s proposal, particularly since it would ensure districts receive at least as much funding next year as they did for this school year.
Demonstrators chanted, “No more cuts!” and “You left us no choice. We have to use our teacher voice.” (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)
Still, Vick and other educators are urging the General Assembly to begin a conversation about how Colorado can “get out of this cycle” of budget shortfalls and consequential cuts to schools.
“We can’t continue to play ‘The Hunger Games’ with our funding,” Vick said. “The premise of ‘The Hunger Games’ is you sacrifice part of your population for the good of the whole and, given the productivity of this state, we should not be sacrificing our public services the way we are.”
“Colorado needs to ask itself what kind of state it wants to be,” he added. “Are we a state that decides we can’t fund anything so billionaires can live here cheaply? That’s the main question.”
“We should all be appalled”
The crowd of teachers, many who brought children, rapidly grew by noon, with a gridlock of protesters swarming the Capitol steps and lawn.
Chants of “no more cuts” and “kids, not cuts” rang out as a sea of handmade signs waved in the air. One read: “Think we’ll give up easily? Ask us how long we wait to pee!” Another: “Grow a spine and stop balancing the budget on education’s back!”
Early in the afternoon, the crowd turned melodic as horns blared in the background, with protesters singing, “We’re not gonna take it. No, we ain’t gonna take it. We’re not gonna take it anymore.”
Meanwhile, cars streamed by honking in solidarity.
After the height of the demonstration, a parade of a few hundred teachers and supporters of public education filed past the Capitol, ringing bells and chanting, “Whose schools? Our schools.”
Teachers directed some of their ire at the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which limits how much state revenue can grow from year to year, based on the combined rate of consumer inflation and population growth.
“Every kid is always affected negatively by chronic underfunding,” said Nicholas, of STEM Launch in Thornton. “Ever since the passing of TABOR, schools have had to scramble and make compromises that have negatively impacted kids. These new cuts are just going to make what’s already bad even worse from a funding perspective.”
Nicholas and his wife, Tara, worry both about dramatic changes to education at the federal level, including President Donald Trump’s aim to dissolve the U.S. Department of Education, and the state’s chronic shortchanging of schools.
With more money designated for education, they said schools could take greater steps to address students’ mental health needs, and help them feel safe at school. Tara, who teaches seventh grade science, noted that more funding would allow her to buy more lab equipment and introduce students to more opportunities to get them thinking about their future.
Nicholas, who has spent close to 30 years in the classroom, added that a continued lack of funding will only make it harder for Colorado to sustain a teacher workforce.
“If this profession is going to be there for those 20-year-olds who are starting to grow up, if they’re going to have a career where public access to education is free for all,” he said, “then we need to stop any cuts that would impact their future.”
Krystal Aviles, a Denver Public Schools social worker, poses with a sign as teachers and public education supporters rally against cuts to education. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)
Demonstrator Jason Malmberg, who teaches music at four elementary schools in Adams County School District 14, said his district has been forced to make “extreme choices” without enough funding. Among them, the district has had to try to boost teacher salaries as high as possible so that educators can afford to live in metro Denver.
“That puts extreme financial pressures on the budgets,” said Malmberg, also president of the local teachers union. “You can only do so much, and even with that we still have teachers living in their aunts’ basements who have been to college in America. We should all be appalled. That doesn’t match up to the American Dream.”
Malmberg said the state’s inadequate funding of schools has trickled down to directly impact his students. At one elementary school, he teaches music out of an office space. Another school converted a stage to a classroom for his music classes. And many of the district’s school buildings are in desperate need of significant repairs and replacements.
He doesn’t believe the state is facing a teacher shortage, even as many schools struggle to find enough teachers to fill their classrooms. Instead, Colorado has a funding crisis that is preventing qualified teachers from committing to a classroom career at a time they can shift to another industry and “make more money and have less stress with less expectations being levied upon them,” he said.
Malmberg is equally frustrated with TABOR and Polis’ proposal for school funding, saying his plan “signals a level of tone deafness” that has propelled teachers to protest en masse.
“The people have had it,” he said. “In a state that is run top to bottom by Democrats, to be in the basement of funding public education is — ironic doesn’t cover it. It’s completely shameful.”
Young students parade in front of the Capitol waving signs in protest of school funding cuts March 20, 2025, in Denver. (Erica Breunlin, The Colorado Sun)
If the state better prioritized educating funding, he added, teachers could have smaller classes, schools could hire more trained professionals to meet the escalating needs and school facilities could have all the amenities they need to accommodate students’ learning.
“This is not a small problem,” Malmberg said. “This is a giant problem that has been building for years and the isolation and the polarization of our politics and our society has allowed people like Jared Polis to turn his eye and pretend this isn’t happening.”
Teachers draw scrutiny for taking school day off to protest
Some state leaders and education advocates, including Polis, criticized educators for heading to the Capitol instead of the classroom Thursday, depriving students of learning time and potentially putting parents in a bind.
“The best place for kids is in the classroom,” Polis said in a statement. “Canceling school at the last minute in several districts on 3/20/25 will put strains and hardships on parents and will leave kids without instruction and many without a safe place to go. Let’s remember that nearly 70% of third graders can’t read or do math on grade level, and this leaves parents scrambling to find care.”
Brenda Dickhoner, president of the conservative education organization Ready Colorado, had sharp words for teachers, saying that “our children deserve better than to be used as pawns in political battles.”
“By shutting down schools for a rally, educators and district leaders are sending a clear and troubling message: political posturing is more important than the educational welfare of our children,” Dickhoner said in a statement. “Thousands of students who rely on their schools for learning, structure, and essential services such as meals are left abandoned. These closures disrupt families, force working parents to scramble for child care, and most importantly, rob students of valuable instructional time that cannot be recovered.”
Vick, of the teachers union, responded that it is time to pause and think through long-term consequences of continually giving schools less money than they need to best serve their students.
“I think people have to look at the bigger picture, that if Colorado continues down this path of not funding its schools adequately, education overall suffers,” he said. “And so we need to take this stand to not only talk about what’s happening now but start the conversation about what kind of state we want to be in the future.”
Staff writer Brian Eason contributed to this report.
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[1] Url:
https://coloradosun.com/2025/03/20/hundreds-of-teachers-rally-to-protect-schools-at-the-colorado-capitol-as-lawmakers-look-for-cuts/
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