DENVER — Some students across the Denver metro area will miss a day of school Thursday while their teachers rally at the Colorado Capitol to protest potential budget cuts.
Gabriel Guerrero, a Denver Public Schools' (DPS) Language Arts teacher, said he'd rather be in the classroom, but it's important to "come out in force" Thursday.
"Polis and lawmakers who are far removed from our classroom are making some horrible decisions that are going to negatively impact the future of our students by taking away resources," Guerrero said.
Watch Guerrero's full interview with Denver7's Allie Jennerjahn, in the video player below:
President of the Denver Classroom Teacher’s Association Robert Gould is expecting up to 3,000 educators to be at the state capitol for the rally.
“One of the core values at our school is advocacy and that’s what teachers are doing today. They’re standing up for what they believe in. They’re standing up for our students and our communities today by protecting educational funding and making sure that our voices are heard," Emilie Kelley, a first grade teacher, added.
Watch Kelley's full interview with Scripps News Group's Allie Jennerjahn, in the video player below:
The Colorado Association of School Executives, which helped organize Thursday's rally, said the governor is reworking a formula that will lead to schools losing $150 million from their budgets. That's because it changes the way students are counted, going from a multi-year average, to a single-year count.
The governor has pushed back on claims of education funding cuts, saying in a statement to The Scripps News Group, his budget actually increases total per pupil funding by $388 per student, and total education funding by $138 million.
The Scripps News Group's Nicole Brady asked the governor's office for more clarification, pointing to Adams 12 Superintendent Chris Gdowski saying the budget would result in a $13 million cut. That would be equivalent to 130 teachers and larger class sizes. Brady questioned if that means schools already had plans for their own budget, based on what their previous pupil count was, and the formula changing to a single-year count would be a cut from their previous plan. She put to the governor's office if that can be true, even as the governor raises overall funding.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis acknowledged, individual schools could see their funding adjusted depending on their student count.
The statement said in part, “In order to help schools access an increase in funding driven by the new, student-centered school finance formula, Colorado must start funding students where they are, not empty chairs. Schools with declining enrollment will see their funding adjusted based on that, and they should not use projections that show them getting funding for students they don’t have."
The governor's office criticized schools across the Denver metro area closing in response to teachers calling out for the rally, including Boulder Valley School District, Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Aurora Public Schools, and more than 100 schools in DPS.
It would leave parents strained and some students without a safe place to go, the governor's office expressed concern.
Joan Marcano, a DPS parent said he supports the teachers, and parents are coming together to help each other.
“We’ve offered some of the parents in my ECE [Early Childhood Education] room for my daughter given that we have the flexibility,” Marcano said.
