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For Colorado schools, 2024 was a year of big changes in funding, continued concerns about declining enrollment even amid the arrival of thousands of new immigrant students, and the growing popularity of a free preschool program that faces big legal challenges.
Here are some of the issues we’re watching in 2025.
How might Trump’s immigration policies affect migrant students?
In 2024, at least 85 Colorado school districts enrolled more than 8,000 migrant students combined. Many came from Venezuela and other South American countries. State lawmakers sent districts an additional $24 million to help serve new students who arrived mid-year.
Migrant students boosted enrollment in districts where there had been declines, including Denver. Teachers scrambled to support them, both academically and with basic needs like housing. Some of those efforts were beautiful. Others were hard. And some were both.
“The bright spots are the growth of our kids and our community,” Valdez Elementary Principal Jessica Buckley told Chalkbeat in February. “The challenge is resources.”
It’s unclear how President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of increased immigration enforcement — and potential mass deportations — will impact migrant students, their families, and the schools that serve them. Some Colorado school district leaders are already preparing: The Colorado Association of School Boards recently invited a Nebraska superintendent who had experienced an immigration raid to talk to state leaders about his experience. His advice?
“Be prepared,” former Superintendent Steve Joel told Colorado school officials. “Your community, your parents, your leaders, your state, they’ll appreciate you for it.”
Appeals court could decide Colorado’s Catholic preschool case
A federal appeals court could decide in 2025 whether religious schools in Colorado’s state-funded preschool program have to abide by non-discrimination rules protecting LGBTQ children and families.
That’s the issue at the heart of a lawsuit brought by two Denver-area Catholic parishes that run preschools. The Catholic preschools wanted to join the state preschool program, but didn’t want to admit LGBTQ children or children from LGBTQ families. The lawsuit is one of several cases involving the state’s universal preschool program.
A lower court judge largely ruled against the Catholic parishes in June, but they’re now appealing. Experts say the case, which pits religious liberty against LGBTQ rights, could wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Colorado faces budget challenges that could impact education
In November, Gov. Jared Polis released a proposed budget that showed the state could have less revenue during a time when its financial obligations for programs like Medicaid have gone up. Recent revenue projections have improved, but the state is still facing a budget hole.
Polis’ budget calls for cuts, including a big change to how the state doles out funding to school districts based on student enrollment and scaling back a new funding formula passed last year. (More on that new formula below.) Meanwhile, Polis’ budget calls for higher education to get a modest $12.1 million increase.
Lawmakers on the powerful Joint Budget Committee have the most say in crafting the budget. They will have plenty to sort through in the coming months.
How much is adequate education funding in Colorado?
Colorado lawmakers approved a brand new funding formula last year — the first major revamp since 1993. However, the formula didn’t say whether the new funding levels were enough.
So how much money do school districts need to adequately teach students?
Colorado commissioned two “adequacy studies” to understand the answer. Those studies are due at the beginning of the year.
Colorado could require more emphasis on climate science
In recent months, numerous Colorado high school students have told the State Board of Education they’ve learned little or nothing about climate change during their K-12 careers.
In December, the board took a preliminary step to address those concerns by asking education department officials to recommend changes to the state science standards that would put more emphasis on climate science.
The science standards — basically a big list of knowledge and skills Colorado students should have in various areas — are due to be revised in 2025.
The state’s current science standards reference climate change in middle school and high school, but not elementary school. If the standards change, teachers will have to adapt their lessons over the next few years to match the standards.
School closures will prompt decisions about vacant buildings
Seven Denver schools will close in the spring of 2025, and three more schools will partially close, due to declining enrollment in Colorado’s largest school district. That decision was controversial, and a parent group has filed a lawsuit to try to stop it.
The Jeffco and Aurora school districts have also closed schools recently because of declining enrollment, and Douglas County School District is expected to do the same in 2025.
The school closures will leave districts grappling with another big question: what to do with the vacant buildings. Denver has promised not to sell any schools and to consult with the community on future uses. Meanwhile, Jeffco is in the midst of several sales that could be finalized next year, and Aurora is still deciding what to do with at least one building.
Low-income families face child care hardship
Many Colorado families who qualify for state child care subsidies could be out of luck next year. That’s because the program is facing a funding shortfall and state officials expect most counties to institute subsidy waitlists or freezes by June.
These measures won’t cut off families who currently receive subsidies. But it will limit the number of new families who can join.
So far, at least seven counties have already instituted a subsidy waitlist or a freeze: Adams, Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Gunnison, Jefferson, and Larimer.
Some communities that have passed lodging taxes or tapped other local funding may be able to fill the gap created by subsidy waitlists or freezes. But that will be a partial fix at best.
Future of DACA teachers unclear as Trump takes over
During his first administration, Trump tried to end a program that protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, a group known as Dreamers, from deportation. But his effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program stalled in the courts.
Now, there are signs Trump has had a change of heart. In a Dec. 8 interview on Meet the Press, when asked if he wants to let the so-called Dreamers stay in the country, he said, “I do … I think we can work with the Democrats and work something out.”
But given his promise of mass deportations and his past vacillation on whether Dreamers deserve protection, some immigrants rights groups are skeptical. Colorado has about 12,000 DACA recipients and some are public school teachers.
Colorado’s career and college readiness programs hit crossroads
In 2022, Colorado lawmakers commissioned a report on how to improve postsecondary and workforce readiness. Released in late 2023, it offered 13 recommendations for streamlining a fragmented system of state programs meant to prepare students for college and careers.
State lawmakers then commissioned a study, released this month, that called for big changes, including bringing the disparate programs under one roof. The report also recommended either ending or reworking a popular fifth-year high school program called ASCENT.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
Ann Schimke, Jason Gonzales, Melanie Asmar 2024-12-23 20:59:33
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