August 06, 2009 12:59 AM UTC

Once more to the chopping block

• 1 Comments
• by: Great Education Colorado

While Colorado’s education funding system heads toward the 2011 cliff, districts around the state have already been taking steps to cope with their looming budget shortfalls.

For example, there’s Buena Vista:

Buena Vista School District R-31 board of education May 4 voted 5-1 not to approve a bid for the replacement of the Dorothea Wille PE Complex boiler system. The board wants to continue researching grants or other resources to help pay the costs. . .

The board members discussed delaying the replacement for possibly a year, and extending the life of the 30-year-old current boiler. If the school district were to go forward with the replacement now, the costs would all be out of the school district’s “pocket,” said superintendent Tina Goar.

Then there’s Pueblo City Schools:

The Pueblo City Schools Board of Education voted Thursday to give non-renewal notices to 77 full- and part-time teachers, 44 of them probationary teachers in their first, second and third years with the district.

Notably, these decisions came BEFORE the announcement of Colorado’s $384 million budget shortfall for 2010, for which proposed solutions include delaying the funding of full-day kindergarten and “slashing school spending.” And neither involved funding for higher education, which is similarly imperiled.

Of course, since the announcement of that further shortfall, school boards around the state are dealing with the new realities.  For instance, in Garfield Re-2, a district that has already been coping with resources issues:

The Re-2 school board last month approved a “worst-case scenario” $39 million budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year. The budget includes a $1.3 million operating deficit that could carry over into next year as well.

As a microcosm of structural budget failure, these examples provide us with an occasion to note again that the only way to prevent further deterioration of Colorado’s educational system is to fund it. Sign our “Great Futures Pledge,” along with hundreds of Coloradans including Senate President Brandon Shaffer and former Governor Richard Lamm.

Check out our video and sign the pledge here. Colorado’s kids will thank you for it.

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Crossposted at the Great Education Colorado Blog

http://www.greateducation.org