DENVER — Thousands of teachers from across Colorado descended on the state capitol Thursday to demand lawmakers provide more money for schools.
But it’s not a new issue. Colorado has been under-funding schools for more than a decade now.
“I am not here because I want my paycheck to be bigger,” said Cassandra Barnhart, a teacher at Douglas Elementary in the Boulder Valley School District. “I am here because I want your children to have the best opportunity they can have.”
According to the Colorado School Finance Project, a nonpartisan research nonprofit that tracks school finance data, the Boulder Valley School District alone has lost out on more than $340 million over the past 14 years due to state under-funding.
“They always reach into that education pie,” said Barnhart. “And that pie has gotten smaller and smaller and there's just no more slices to give.”
The numbers from the Colorado School Finance Project show the state has underfunded school districts statewide by more than $10 billion over the past 16 years.
Instead of sending that money to schools, the state used it to pay for other expenses.
"Well, you know, we still turn out a pretty good product in Colorado, but Colorado kids deserve more," said Liz Waddick, a Spanish teacher and vice president of the Colorado Education Association.
Waddick said she often did what other teachers continue to do: Dip into their own pockets to make sure their classrooms have everything they need.
She estimates she spent anywhere from $300 to $500 a year of her own money.
“I spent money out of my own pocket, my own family's budget, in order to make sure that my students had the things that they needed,” said Waddick. “Like Kleenex for us. That was the thing that I was always buying. Kleenex, pencils, those kind of things.”
The impact of under-funding varies from district to district.
In some districts, it has led to larger class sizes and under-staffing, and a shortage of teachers who provide specialized support to students.
“I don't think people realize how lean schools are,” said Barnhart. “If we don't have classroom teachers to provide that first level of support and we don't have interventionists to provide second and third level tier support, then the person who's losing is your child.”
That’s why teachers are calling on the state to deliver on its promise to fully fund schools.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.