Budget Cuts Could Hit School Districts Hard

Anders Nelsona.nelson@krdo.com

EL PASO COUNTY – The idea of budget cuts for schools is not a new topic, but a new bill in Colorado Legislation could cripple school districts even more.

On Wednesday, Legislators went back to work, focusing on balancing the budget, and Colorado schools could be taking a big hit.

Superintendent Terry Ebert for District 22 in Ellicott explains that, “the states been talking about somewhere around 6.12% cuts to all the school districts.”

Governor Bill Ritter has a proposal that would cut 260 million dollars in funding for grades K-12 in public schools.

Ebert says he has heard bigger numbers than that, “those numbers are fluctuating, because now I hear numbers as high as 10%.”

These cuts would force every district to make cuts and that causes people to worry with many schools already running on a reduced staff. The problem is that schools could be running out of areas that can be reduced or cut and some fear that buses, teachers or even entire schools could become casualties of the smaller budgets.

There is some hopeful news.President Obama is asking Congress for 1.35 billion dollars to extend education grants for the states. The program is the “Race to the Top” and the deadline to apply for the first round is Tuesday.

Colorado is making a pitch for 380 million dollars from the Federal Government. The plan would include incentives for top teachers, resources for failing schools and data sharing across Colorado.

Legislators have four months in the session and before time is up the decision will be made on what percent of funding will be cut to schools across Colorado.