Colorado elected leaders have mixed responses to teachers’ rally Friday

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Colorado Springs State Sen. Owen Hill bucked the trend of state elected officials keeping a low profile during Friday’s teachers’ rally in Denver.

Hickenlooper, who was not expected to appear and earlier said he would be unavailable to the media, left his office shortly after 11 a.m. and walked two blocks to Civic Center Park where teachers gathered.

KRDO NewsChannel 13 was the first to interview Hickenlooper as he walked to the park.

“The teachers have been, you know, basically giving a loan to the state of Colorado over the last eight or so years,” he said. “Teachers are stating the obvious that they should be paid more. We hear them. We’ve given them a 10 percent raise over the past two years. We know they deserve more. The question is finding the money.”

Hickenlooper spoke for about five minutes to the crowd of teachers, continuing through chants of “save our schools.”

Hill, who has introduced a bill that would increase the state’s education budget by $500 million, eagerly engaged small groups of teachers outside and inside the State capitol.

“I don’t know what other lawmakers did today, but this is what I love to do,” he said.

“And we are very grateful for that, because we really feel like if we don’t start communicating and listening to each other, there’s never going to be a win-win,” said Gretchen Bitner, a teacher at School District 11 who spoke with Owen.

Some teachers said several lawmakers did not respond to requests for private meetings, and one teacher said she was discouraged by what she heard from an elected leader.

“To hear some of the things that came out of his mouth — things that he was saying — was very disheartening,” said Carm Fay, of Adams County. “He apparently had already made some decisions.”

Yet teachers left the two-day rally hoping it would eventually pay off in higher pay and more resources.