Colorado Turnaround Schools: Rays of Hope
This report highlights the significant progress seen two years into Colorado’s participation in federally funded school turnaround efforts, offering recommendations that can be applied elsewhere.
Colorado Turnaround Schools: Rays of Hope
Colorado School Finance Partnership: Report and Recommendations
Over the last several years, Colorado has emerged as a national leader in crafting innovative solutions to challenges facing its public schools and looking at new ways to provide a high-quality education to all of its students. But Colorado’s mechanism for financing its public schools, the School Finance Act (SFA), saw its last major overhaul nearly 20 years ago. From a practical perspective, this means that Colorado is still funding its schools according to formulas that were implemented before state education reform policies, No Child Left Behind, and even prior to when CSAPs became part of the state’s approach to assessing students. From a historical perspective, school financing systems are usually updated every decade, both in Colorado and across the country.
Constitutional provisions and changes in education strategies and priorities leave Colorado with a school funding mechanism that is outdated, inadequate, unequal, and unrelated to student achievement. Now is the time for Colorado to find an equitable, innovative, bi‐partisan solution to funding its schools that is aligned with goals for student achievement and, ultimately, is viable for statewide support.
Colorado School Finance Partnership: Report and RecommendationsMore Information
For more information about Colorado's work to address school finance, please contact the Children's Campaign's Vice President of Education Initiatives, Leslie Colwell, at (303) 620-4534 or leslie@coloradokids.org
For media inquiries related to the School Finance Partnership, please contact the Children's Campaign's Communications Director, Tara Manthey, at (303) 620-4544 or tara@coloradokids.org.
HB 12-1238 - Fact Sheet
HB 12-1238, the Early Literacy Act, gives teachers and school districts a number of tools track and improve early literacy. Please read this fact sheet to learn more about the legislation.
HB 12-1238 - Fact Sheet2012 Legislative Priorities
In preparation for the 2012 session of the Colorado General Assembly, the Colorado Children's Campaign has established several legislative priorities. Our focus is on protecting and advocating for the policies and investments that will provide the greatest benefits to Colorado kids.
2012 Legislative Priorities
Crossing the Finish Line
Crossing the Finish Line is the All Kids Covered Coalition's 2012 report on the status of meaningful health care coverage and access for all children in Colorado.
AKC Crossing the finish line reportColorado Children's Budget 2011
According to the Colorado Children’s Budget 2011, released December 21, 2011 by the Colorado Children’s Campaign, children have claimed a shrinking share of Colorado’s total state budget since FY 2009-10, despite a growing child population and increasing child poverty rates. The portion of the state budget supporting children’s programs and services decreased from 45.3 percent in FY 2009–10 to 41.7 percent in the current fiscal year. The Colorado Children’s Budget 2011 analyzes Colorado’s public investments in programs and services supporting children for the past five years, a period marked by a severe recession and weak economic recovery.
Over the five-year period analyzed in this report, Colorado’s investment in children’s programs grew at an average annual rate of 3.3 percent, just enough to keep pace with inflation and the growth in child population. However, the average annual growth rate was boosted due to the temporary infusion of federal dollars through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which has now been mostly spent. Since the peak in FY 2009–10, investments in children’s programs decreased by 6.4 percent in FY 2010–11 and 4.7 percent in FY 2011–12, when taking into account inflation and the growth in child population.
Based on initial FY 2012–13 state revenue projections, possible decreases in federal support for discretionary children’s programs, and continued structural imbalances in the state budget, children’s programs are likely to face additional cuts in the upcoming year.
The Children’s Budget 2011 is intended to serve as a resource guide for policymakers and advocates who are interested in better understanding how Colorado funds children’s programs and services and to help unravel the often confusing and complicated details of the state budget. The report provides detailed information on appropriations and sources of financing for programs which help children across four domains: early childhood learning and development, health, K-12 education, and other support services.
Other key findings:
• When it comes to specific programs, appropriation data from FY 2007–08 through FY 2011–12 show that, overall, whether or not a program experienced growth hinged on one of three factors: (1) state constitutional protection; (2) dedicated cash fund revenue stream; or (3) ability to leverage substantial federal funding. If none of these exist, investments usually failed to keep pace with inflation and population.
• Colorado relies heavily on federal grants to deliver services and support for children and families and future flows of these funds are uncertain. In the current fiscal year (after most ARRA funds were spent), federal grants account for more than one-quarter of state spending on children, with the level of dependence on federal funding varying greatly by domain. Nationally, federal spending on children is projected to decline as a proportion of the federal budget.
• Programs absorbing cuts during the five-year period covered in the report include K-12 education, Early Intervention Services, the Colorado Preschool Program, the Child Care Assistance Program, summer and after-school programs, public health and prevention programming, programs enhancing economic security for low-income families with children, child welfare services, and youth corrections.
• Colorado’s constitutional fiscal constraints and its reliance on a revenue system not capable of keeping up with state program commitments continue to pose challenges to lawmakers as they struggle to balance the budget and meet the needs of Colorado’s children in a recovering, but still sluggish, economy.
Special Thanks to our sponsors - The Colorado Trust, The Colorado Health Foundation, First Focus, and The Women's Foundation of Colorado.
Colorado Children's Budget 20112011 Legislative Impacts
During the 2011 legislative session of the Colorado General Assembly, the Colorado Children's Campaign overcame a number of challenges and worked successfully with policymakers and coalition partners to improve the health, education, and well-being of Colorado’s kids.
2011 Legislative Impacts
2010 Annual Report
The 2010 Annual Report summarizes our advocacy, research, development, and outreach efforts in 2010.
2010 Annual Report: Colorado Children's Campaign by the Numbers
Investing in a Bright Future for All of Colorado’s Kids: The Importance of Providing Early Childhood Care and Education to Children in Immigrant Families
Wide gaps exist in the well-being of Colorado’s children in immigrant families and their counterparts in U.S.-born families, according to Investing in a Bright Future for All of Colorado’s Kids: The Importance of Providing Early Childhood Care and Education to Children in Immigrant Families, released December 15, 2011. But, those gaps could be reduced by expanding access to high-quality, culturally-competent early childhood programs, ensuring all Colorado kids get the best possible start in life.
While the vast majority of children in immigrant families in Colorado (87 percent) were born in the U.S. and therefore are entitled to all the rights that accompany U.S. citizenship, data show they often fare far worse than children in U.S.-born families. The report does not analyze the citizenship status of the 13 percent of children in immigrant families who were not born in the U.S.
Among the report’s findings:
- Children in immigrant families in Colorado are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty as children in U.S.-born families (27 percent versus 15 percent). More than half of all Colorado children in immigrant families live in low-income households, compared to about a third of children in U.S.-born families.
- Colorado children in immigrant families are more likely than children in U.S.-born families to live in two-parent households (79 percent versus 70 percent).
- Children in immigrant families are less likely to be enrolled in early learning programs than children in U.S.-born families at 3 and 4 years old.
- Colorado’s gap in 4th grade reading proficiency between students who are English Language Learners and those who are fluent in English was the second-largest in the country in 2011.
The report identifies proven strategies to improve the well-being of Colorado children in immigrant families, such as expanding access to high-quality, culturally-competent early childhood care and education, and included strategies that would require minimal financial investments to implement. Specifically, the report recommends strengthening the exchange of information between immigrant-serving organizations and early childhood providers, recruiting representatives from immigrant communities to serve on Early Childhood Councils, and providing professional development opportunities to train early learning providers in working with students who are English Language Learners.
The report also analyzed Colorado’s changing demographics. According to the report, children in immigrant families, defined as a child who is foreign-born or, in most cases, U.S.-born with at least one foreign-born parent, represent the fastest-growing segment of the child population in the United States. In 2009, more than one-fifth of Colorado’s 1.2 million children lived in immigrant families, compared to about one in four in the U.S. The growth in the number of children in immigrant families is one piece of a broader demographic shift happening in Colorado and across the U.S. According to population projections from the State Demography Office, children of color will make up the majority of Colorado’s child population in 2021.
Investing in a Bright Future for All of Colorado’s Kids: The Importance of Providing Early Childhood Care and Education to Children in Immigrant FamiliesInvertir en un Futuro Brillante para Todos los Niños de Colorado: La Importancia de Brindar Atención y Educación a la Primera Infancia a los Niños de Familias Inmigrantes
Existen amplias brechas en el bienestar de los niños de Colorado en familias inmigrantes y sus homólogos en familias nacidas en EE. UU., De acuerdo con Invertir en un Futuro Brillante para Todos los Niños de Colorado: La Importancia de Brindar Atención y Educación a la Primera Infancia a los Niños de Familias Inmigrantes, publicado el 15 de diciembre de 2011. Sin embargo, esas brechas podrían reducirse ampliando el acceso a programas de primera infancia culturalmente competentes de alta calidad, asegurando que todos los niños de Colorado obtengan el mejor comienzo posible en la vida.
Mientras que la gran mayoría de los niños en familias inmigrantes en Colorado (87 por ciento) nacieron en los EE. UU. Y por lo tanto tienen derecho a todos los derechos que acompañan a la ciudadanía estadounidense, los datos muestran que a menudo les va mucho peor que a los niños de familias nacidas en EE. UU. El informe no analiza el estado de ciudadanía del 13 por ciento de los niños de familias inmigrantes que no nacieron en los EE. UU.
Entre los hallazgos del informe:
- Los niños de familias inmigrantes en Colorado tienen casi el doble de probabilidades de vivir en la pobreza que los niños de familias nacidas en EE. UU. (27 por ciento contra 15 por ciento). Más de la mitad de todos los niños de Colorado en familias inmigrantes viven en hogares de bajos ingresos, en comparación con alrededor de un tercio de los niños en familias nacidas en EE. UU.
- Los niños de Colorado en familias inmigrantes son más propensos que los niños en familias nacidas en los EE. UU. A vivir en hogares con dos padres (79 por ciento versus 70 por ciento).
- Los niños en familias inmigrantes son menos propensos a inscribirse en programas de aprendizaje temprano que los niños en familias nacidas en los Estados Unidos a los 3 y 4 años de edad.
- La brecha de Colorado en el dominio de lectura de 4º grado entre los estudiantes que aprenden inglés y aquellos que dominan el inglés fue la segunda más grande en el país en 2011.
El informe identifica estrategias comprobadas para mejorar el bienestar de los niños de Colorado en familias inmigrantes, como expandir el acceso a educación y cuidado de la primera infancia culturalmente competente de alta calidad, e incluyó estrategias que requerirían inversiones financieras mínimas para implementar. Específicamente, el informe recomienda fortalecer el intercambio de información entre organizaciones que prestan servicios a inmigrantes y proveedores de educación temprana, reclutar representantes de comunidades inmigrantes para prestar servicios en Consejos de la Primera Infancia y brindar oportunidades de desarrollo profesional para capacitar a proveedores de educación temprana en el trabajo con estudiantes que hablan inglés Aprendices
El informe también analizó los cambios demográficos de Colorado. Según el informe, los niños de familias inmigrantes, definidos como niños nacidos en el extranjero o, en la mayoría de los casos, nacidos en los EE. UU. Con al menos un padre nacido en el extranjero, representan el segmento de mayor crecimiento de la población infantil en los Estados Unidos. Estados. En 2009, más de una quinta parte de los 1.2 millones de niños de Colorado vivían en familias inmigrantes, comparado con uno de cada cuatro en los Estados Unidos. El crecimiento en la cantidad de niños en familias inmigrantes es una parte de un cambio demográfico más amplio en Colorado y EE. UU. De acuerdo con las proyecciones de población de la Oficina de Demografía del Estado, los niños de color constituirán la mayoría de la población infantil de Colorado en 2021.
Invertir en un Futuro Brillante para Todos los Niños de Colorado: La Importancia de Brindar Atención y Educación a la Primera Infancia a los Niños de Familias Inmigrantes