Colorado Teachers Willing to Walkout For Change

In a recent survey done by Colorado's largest teachers union, results show that half of the respondents are willing to go out on strike and 83% are willing to participate in a walkout if the Colorado legislature refuses to significantly increase education funding and teacher pay. In its first ever report, the Colorado Education Association listed a number of priorities for Colorado's legislature to improve upon in 2020, with the top of the list being improving teacher pay. 

            Over time, Colorado lawmakers have consistently held back money that the state constitution designates for schools in order to pay for other budget priorities. This withholding of money is known as the budget stabilization factor or the negative factor. Over the last decade, the budget stabilization factor has grown to over $8 billion. Though this number may shock and upset some, borrowing money from Colorado’s schools will more than likely still be around for years to come. In his proposed 2020-21 budget, Governor Jared Polis recommended a budget stabilization factor of more than $500 million. With this being said, this is down 0.6% from last year and there has been a continuous reducing trend since a high in Fiscal Year 2012-13 at 16%. You can see this downward trend in the figure below that was taken directly from Governor Polis’ budget request for 2020-21. So, even though money is still being borrowed from Colorado’s school, the problem is improving (slowly, but it’s still improving). Polis had this to say in the education portion of his budget proposal, “Let’s not forget who is driving the success in our schools and community-based programs – our dedicated teachers and early childhood educators… We will continue to support and help build a teaching community that can lead the nation.” (Polis).

Figure 1

One of the major topics we have discussed in class is polarization and the consequences it has on effectiveness in creating legislation. Well, education reform in certain areas is something that is generally agreed upon by both parties. For example, one of the bills that we discussed in class was the Educator Loan Forgiveness Program, where it has an equal number of prime sponsors on both sides of the spectrum. Other bills on education in the Colorado General Assembly are similar in this sense, with a good number of them actually being signed into law. Still, Colorado has yet to see serious policy change on education reform.

Though Polis and the General Assembly are seemingly in favor of bringing change to the obvious teacher funding issue, many of the state’s teachers and educators do not think it is enough. As mentioned earlier, the Colorado Education Association reported some shocking numbers on respondents that are willing to protest in one way or another, whether that be going on strike or a walkout. The union’s President, Amie Baca-Oehlert, said that these results show the desire for “bold action” and that it makes clear how strongly those affected feel about this issue, though she doesn’t consider it a threat but more of a call for action and collaboration. With this being said, Colorado has seen its fair share of protests regarding education. In April 2018, enough teachers walked out that, “more than half of all schoolchildren in Colorado didn’t have classes during two Days of Action. Thousands of teachers rallied at the state Capitol, and others staged demonstrations in their communities.” (ChalkBeat). Since then, teachers in some cities such as Pueblo and Denver have won many of their demands, while other cities like the community of South Park have had to go back to work without a contract. Though at the State level, the Colorado Education Association has not seen significant success in concrete policy wins in correlation to teacher activism. The two major statewide education reform measures proposed over the last two years – Amendment 73 and Proposition CC – have both failed each time. The Colorado General Assembly does not set teacher pay, but Baca-Oehlert says that does not mean lawmakers are powerless to improve salaries. In fact, both Governor Polis and Baca-Oehlert suggest that the state could create incentives for districts to raise pay locally. Some districts have raised teacher salaries in the last year with help from voters, but those increases have not always kept up with the cost of living. In response, the Colorado Education Association has started to plan walkouts that could last up to a week as an attempt to apply more pressure to lawmakers. Their report states, “Workers know that striking is a last resort, but educators across Colorado are prepared to make that hard choice for their students if this fundamental crisis is not fixed.” (ChalkBeat).

Work Cited

ChalkBeat. “Union Survey: Many Colorado Teachers Willing to Walk out to Protest School Funding.” Colorado Politics, 19 Nov. 2019, www.coloradopolitics.com/news/union-survey-many-colorado-teachers-willing-to-walk-out-to/article_f0683050-07a6-11ea-b870-734f4d92b505.html.

Meltzer, Erica. “Colorado Gov. Polis Calls for 6,000 More State-Funded Preschool Spots in 2020 Budget Request.” ChalkBeat, ChalkBeat, 1 Nov. 2019, chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2019/11/01/colorado-gov-polis-calls-for-6000-more-state-funded-preschool-spots-in-2020-budget-request/.

Meltzer, Erica. “Many Colorado Teachers Willing to Walk out to Protest School Funding, Union Survey Finds.” The Colorado Sun, The Colorado Sun, 15 Nov. 2019, coloradosun.com/2019/11/15/teacher-pay-colorado-protests-union/.

Polis, Jared. “Governor Polis FY 2020-2021 November 1 2019 Budget Request (Full).” Google Drive, The Office of the Governor, 1 Nov. 2019, drive.google.com/file/d/1L1vXTycC0e7iQv-JNaOtaY_s2mHzppbP/view.