This month, more than a hundred school board members won elections across Colorado’s 178 school districts. These board members take their seats at a challenging time: 12th grade reading scores are at a three-decade low, federal funding cuts are looming and many districts face the challenge of declining enrollment.
There’s no doubt this is a trying time to govern public education. But it’s also a moment of incredible opportunity — a time to seed innovative approaches and game-changing solutions to improve outcomes for our youth. Colorado families still believe our public schools are essential to achieving the American Dream — at their best, they provide a path to opportunity and economic mobility.
So, what should these newly elected board members prioritize?
Last year, as the CEO of the nonprofit Colorado Schools Fund, I met with countless parents and community leaders in bright red and blue counties, from Fort Morgan to Trinidad, Lamar to Grand Junction. I also visited more than 50 public schools across the state. What I heard from families and what I saw in classrooms should serve as a road map for governance, and where board members should allocate their energy.
For starters, ignore the noise and focus on what families want. The parents I met weren’t concerned about culture war issues. Instead, keep it simple: Parents want safe, joyful public schools with high expectations for their children and support when students aren’t meeting those expectations.
In Colorado, we have strong standards for what students are expected to achieve but little follow-up when schools aren’t meeting those standards. Families are angry about this.
A dad in a rural county told me his son’s school “keeps cranking along” with persistent underperformance. “Nobody’s jumping in to say, hey school board and superintendent, you have to work on this,” he said. A mom in a suburban district shared her daughter was tardy 38 times before she received any discipline action from her school.
This lack of accountability is unacceptable. One of the most important responsibilities of an elected school board is to hold superintendents accountable, especially for schools that are consistently underperforming for students.
Second, invest in people. More than any other factor, student success depends on having talented teachers in the classrooms and strong leaders supporting those teachers. And great teachers want to work for outstanding leaders.
More school boards should encourage superintendents to identify leaders in their districts who are delivering results, hold up what is working and ensure rising leaders are training alongside the strongest veterans. We must advocate for budgets that compensate teachers and leaders the way they deserve.
Third, focus on students farthest from opportunity. Nearly 45% of all Colorado public school students are from low-income families — and these students are getting left behind. A whopping 85% of low-income high school juniors in Colorado are below grade level in math; 59% are below grade level in reading on the SAT, which Colorado uses as the high school state test.
These outcomes are tragic on an individual basis, and they are crippling for the future workforce and economy of this state. Our new school board members must demand data in their districts be segmented by demographic groups. And where it’s clear that things aren’t working and change is needed, lean in.
In Denver Public Schools today, seven of the 10 highest-performing high schools for low-income students (as measured by proficiency rates on the 2025 Colorado SAT) are public charter schools, many of which opened at a time when DPS school board members started closely examining what was working for lower-income students.
Finally, embrace innovation and entrepreneurism. I met a high school junior at Aurora Science and Tech High School, part of DSST Public Schools and located on the Anschutz Medical Campus, who spent 12 days the prior year immersed in labs and medical spaces. “When I started high school,” she said, “I only knew who a doctor and nurse were. Now, I understand every job on this campus.” She then explained the exact research she will pursue as both a medical doctor and Ph.D. researcher in language over my head.
Many Colorado districts have embraced this kind of innovation. With federal budget cuts on the horizon, there will be an instinct to batten down the hatches — but this is precisely the time when we need to encourage more innovative approaches to engage students, connect learning to real-life experiences and careers, and raise the bar.
Across Colorado, children, including my son, started kindergarten this fall in our public schools. This is their one shot at a K-12 education that can lead to a life of opportunity — or not. And I hope our new school board members recognize these stakes.
We can and must do better together by listening to students and families, investing in teachers and leaders, replicating what’s working, prioritizing students furthest from opportunity, and pushing as hard as we can on innovation and excellence. Colorado families deserve nothing less.
Lydia Hoffman, of Denver, is the CEO of the Colorado Schools Fund, which supports new, high-quality public schools where they are needed across the state.
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