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School chiefs decry cuts
Superintendents predicting deep funding decreases
Herald Staff Writer
Educators from throughout Southwest Colorado gathered in Durango to urge state leaders to avoid cutting education funding as they deal with a predicted $1 billion budget shortfall.
Ritter has proposed cutting $260 million, or 4.6 percent, from K-12 education in 2010-11. Education advocates say that conflicts with the will of voters, who approved Amendment 23 in 2000 to guarantee a minimum level of education funding.
A statewide campaign, "Honor 23" has begun to fight for education funding. About 60 people attended a meeting at 9-R's administration building.
Superintendents recalled receiving dispiriting predictions of how Ritter's budget would affect their school districts: $888,000 in cuts to Montezuma-Cortez, $778,000 in Archuleta County, $323,000 in Dolores and $240,000 in Mancos.
Superintendent Keith Owen and Chief Financial Officer Laine Gibson topped the smaller districts by estimating a potential loss to 9-R of almost $2 million. The district operates on a general fund budget of about $40 million.
Beverly Ingle, president of the Colorado Education Association, asked how schools can prepare students for "21st-century skills" with outdated buildings and equipment.
"Do you just tell them what's going to be on the computer screen?" she said.
State Sen. Bruce Whitehead, D-Hesperus, said he shared the educators' concerns. But he spoke frankly of the budget shortfall.
"The truth is, there are going to be cuts," he said. "It's hard to sugarcoat that."
That led to a candid exchange with Greg Lawler, a regional CEA representative, who urged against cuts to education, saying it's already underfunded.
However, Whitehead said some cuts would have to be made to balance the budget as required by the state constitution, and he challenged Lawler to find other funds to reduce.
"The question that the Legislature is going to have to answer is the question you haven't," Whitehead said.
Mark MacHale, superintendent of Dolores School District, attempted an answer.
"State parks - why are they better maintained than my schools?" he said.
Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said K-12 education, which makes up nearly half of the $7.2 billion state general fund, cannot be held harmless while other programs sustain deep cuts.
"We are now at a point where we have no choice," Dreyer said in a telephone interview. "We are out of options. We are trying to spread this burden around in a way that makes sense."
Education spending in Colorado has risen $1 billion in five years, Dreyer said.
Educators had a different impression.
"We've been cut through decades, when times were good and times were bad," Ingle said.
Several participants said Colorado needs to raise taxes and do away with the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, a constitutional amendment that restricts tax increases.
"We are under-taxed here in Colorado," said Barb Wynne, a Miller Middle School teacher.
Wynne said she paid only $700 last year in property taxes, less than her mother paid years ago in the Midwest.
chuck@durangoherald.com'>chuck@durangoherald.com
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