Budget Cuts are Damaging our Education

By Benny M.

The last few weeks have been incredibly eventful when it comes to the funding behind our education. Amid ongoing troubles in the federal government surrounding the Department of Education, which seems likely to be hit with further budget cuts and freezes any day now – if it doesn’t get abolished entirely – the Colorado Department of Education has been going through it. 

On the morning of Wednesday, March 19th, teachers around the country gathered outside their schools and waited to enter until they were required to be there, essentially holding a reverse walkout protesting budget cuts, freezes, and attempts to abolish the United States Department of Education. An anonymous participant explained that "the goal was to ask our legislators and our governor to stop using education as a way to fund other things. It feels like we're always cut, I mean, there's things that are hard to understand that take money away from us, like Tabor... if there's money left over it goes back to the taxpayers, which is lovely. But, I'd rather have that money go back to education than get a $130 check or whatever it is."

The next day, Thursday, March 20th, Adams 12 closed school for students, because there was an insufficient number of staff members to safely have schools open for students. Hundreds of teachers in the district took the day off on personal leave to attend the Colorado Education Association (CEA)’s No More Cuts rally at the Colorado Capitol in Denver. People from all over Colorado including educators, students, and families showed up to protest further cuts to our state’s funding of education. 

In the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, there will be major cuts to the Adams 12 budget –more than $27 million– resulting in the losses of around 150 positions, according to a recent email from Superintendent Gdowski. This will lead to several programs, roles, and resources found in elementary, middle, and high schools in the district being eliminated or receiving lower funding. When our district, and even state, is already considered underfunded in the education system, cuts like these are devastating. 

As seen in both Superintendent Gdowski’s email and the official Adams 12 2025-26 Budget Plan, the affected programs include: Gifted and Talented (GT) programs, including GT Advocates and Educators; Digital literacy programs/librarian positions at all elementary, middle, and K-8 schools; Social-emotional specialists who provide mental health and behavioral needs services in Title I elementary schools; some art, music, and physical education programs in 8 elementary schools; some academic intervention programs which help struggling students; and many, many others. 

There will also be several teachers who are laid off, resulting in larger class sizes and fewer classes. Electives may be merged together for class size, or eliminated if they don’t have enough interest. Teachers are going to be paid even less, with the budget experiencing cuts of several million dollars spread across different levels of education.

Not only that, but our district is under enrolled. An anonymous teacher explained that “since COVID, we’ve lost a lot [of students], and [they’re] just not coming back.” Partially, students have left traditional schooling and continued with online / asynchronous schools and classes, places like Five Star Online or other digital education options. In elementary schools especially, enrollment is very low. “There are fewer people having kids and I think that’s one reason it’s hitting elementaries… because there are fewer people starting in schools and it’s kind of, slowly, moving up.” With less people enrolling in earlier schools, that smaller number carries to later levels.

Colorado schools spend thousands of dollars less per student than nearby states, and our district has similar issues compared to other districts nearby. Combined with the national problems with funding, and the very real fear that the Department of Education will be entirely gutted, there need to be no more cuts. We can't keep cutting down opportunities to grow and learn, because eventually there won't be anything left to cut. Enough is enough. As an anonymous teacher puts it, "We're in a tough spot and I think some other school districts are going to feel it soon too."

So why keep waiting for something to be too much? For the sake of our future as students, our future in the workforce, and future generations, education needs to be funded more so we can grow as strong as possible and make a better reality.