By Erica Meltzer, Chalkbeat Colorado Teachers in the Park County district in Colorado’s high country are poised to strike after months of unresolved salary disputes with the district — but no date as been set as both sides hope last-minute talks will yield common ground. Teachers in this small district in the high valley of […]
teachers
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Colorado has run out of excuses for its decades-long failure to support education
The kids are heading back to school across Colorado, some with bulletproof backpacks along with their No. 2 pencils and spiral notebooks, and once again we face the challenge of educating children on a shoestring. Colorado has a long history of starving schools. Since voters passed the TABOR amendment in 1992, per-pupil spending for K-12 […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Politics and Government
What PERA’s bad year means for public workers, retirees and taxpayers in Colorado, explained in charts
A bad investment year at a precarious time for Colorado’s public workers’ pension will mean more sacrifices than state lawmakers expected when they approved a sweeping deal to stabilize the retirement system’s finances in 2018. The good news: Unlike the legislature’s prior attempts to fix the Public Employees’ Retirement Association’s funding woes, safeguards are kicking […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
Think teacher pay is low in Colorado? Try teaching preschool.
By Anne Schimke, Chalkbeat Colorado Last year’s statewide teacher rallies and this year’s Denver teacher strike shined a bright light on Colorado’s lower-than-average teacher pay. But less well-known is the wide salary gap between public elementary school teachers and their preschool counterparts. Last year, lead preschool teachers in district-run schools made $30,500 on average, nearly $22,000 less […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Public schools aren’t failing. They’re what makes our nation great.
Public education represents one of America’s greatest assets. The strength of our nation has been, and always will be, inextricably linked to the quality of our public schools. Just as public schools bring us together as a country, they create a collective base of knowledge that is foundational to our democracy. To ensure our nation’s […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Children need to READ and it is their right: The READ Act Challenge
Schools know how to teach children to read, right? Every child learns to read, right? Well, “No,” according to recent data collected as a required component of the Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development (READ) Act. The READ Act was passed by the Colorado legislature in 2012 amid high acclaim and bipartisan support. The law […]
Posted inEducation, News
Teachers living in campers: How rural Colorado districts are coping with growing teacher shortage
Steve Wilson has spent 35 years in education in rural Colorado, the past 14 as superintendent of the Big Sandy School District that stretches across ranchland in Elbert and El Paso counties. In his second year as superintendent there, four teachers retired, wiping out more than 132 years of experience. Back then, the vacancies posed […]
Posted inEducation, News
Denver Public Schools begins cutting 150-plus central office positions to pay for teacher raises
By Erica Meltzer, Chalkbeat Colorado Denver Public Schools began the process this week of cutting more than 150 administrative positions from its central office, which will free up $17 million for raises for teachers and other district employees, as well as additional money for special education services. The Denver district has far more administrators than others in […]
Posted inBusiness, Education, News, Technology
Computer science isn’t required in Colorado schools. But enough people think it should be that the state is training teachers for free.
Which is heavier — a parrot or a barrel full of rum? How about a pirate flag, or a compass or a pirate’s spyglass? Now, sort it all out by thinking like a computer. That was the query asked of five elementary school teachers holding up cards of pirate-themed images and posing as third and […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
Denver teachers are heading back to class, but their strike revealed a national divide over bonus pay
By Colleen Slevin and Carolyn Thompson, The Associated Press Denver teachers went on strike to improve their pay, but the fight wasn’t that simple. Emboldened by teacher activism nationwide and struggling to live in a rapidly growing city, Denver educators challenged one of the nation’s oldest incentive pay systems, which was originally endorsed by the teachers union […]