A state effort to ease Colorado’s dire shortage of health care workers will offer tuition-free training for several thousand students, providing a much-needed boost to hospitals and clinics. The Care Forward Colorado Program will invest $26 million of federal COVID stimulus funding into the program for two years, guaranteeing free schooling for students interested in […]
Angie Paccione
Posted inColoradans, Economy, Education, Equity, Health, Housing, News
Key gaps between Black, Latino and white Coloradans have narrowed, but equity is “a dream unrealized”
Maria Bocanegra Tejeda awakens as the rising sun lights her room. Her room. In the house her family owns. That fact is still capable of surprising her, so far removed it is from her cousins’ crowded trailer in the crowded mobile home park where she spent nearly half of her 22 years. The night before, […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Enrollment usually rises at community colleges during an economic downturn. That’s not the case during coronavirus.
Times of economic distress typically give rise to bustling community college campuses, where students of all backgrounds turn to enhance their skills or build new ones in pursuit of a new career altogether. Accessible to all, community colleges offer a safe harbor for students — both traditional and nontraditional — trying to navigate toward an […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Politics and Government
Thousands of teachers applied to Colorado’s new educator loan forgiveness program. But only 100 spots are available.
Cañon City Schools social worker Shantell Lynch considers herself lucky that 15 years after she earned her master’s degree, she has only $35,000 in student loans left to pay off. Some of her colleagues are carrying as much as $100,000 in education debt. Still, it’s a heavy weight for Lynch, 51, who became an educator […]
Posted inEducation, Politics and Government
Colorado campuses sound alarm as leaders push cost-cutting and “efficiency through starvation”
One by one, the leaders of Colorado’s colleges and universities appeared before lawmakers to make a collective plea: Don’t neglect us — again. The state’s higher education institutions made clear that the budget proposal from Gov. Jared Polis is the equivalent of a starvation diet that won’t cover basic costs and undercuts the administration’s goals […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Politics and Government
10 states use bottle deposits to boost recycling rates. Could it work for Colorado?
Colorado has a bad recycling reputation. The state generated nearly 2 million more tons of trash in 2018 compared to 2017. And out of all that trash, only approximately 17% was recycled or composted, way below the national average of 35%. Colorado lawmakers spent recent months deliberating over ways to boost the state’s dismal recycling […]
Posted inEducation, News
Colorado wants to steer more students toward college by driving down higher education costs beyond tuition
The rising cost of a college education is a roadblock for many Colorado students, but the state’s higher education leaders are pledging to expand the possibility of getting a college degree using a new “roadmap” focused on affordability. Colorado universities and community colleges are “really the best tool we have to create opportunity for Coloradans, […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
A new Colorado report tries to show what higher education is worth. The value is clearer for some degrees than others.
The mountain of student debt that many college graduates now face has state policymakers asking a question that was once viewed as a no-brainer: Given the rising cost of tuition, is a college degree still worth the price of admission? The answer, according to the Colorado Department of Higher Education, is yes — with a […]
Posted inPolitics and Government
Gov. Jared Polis boosts minority outreach. But black leaders say he hasn’t kept his campaign promises
He clapped to the music at a predominantly black church service. He celebrated with an African American fraternity at a scholarship fundraiser. And he held meetings with black leaders. The events — all in a single week — are part of an effort by Gov. Jared Polis to reach out to the black community in […]