Good morning, Colorado!
School budgets might not sound thrilling over your morning cup of coffee — I get it — but they shape everything from class sizes to counselor availability for Colorado students. And right now, Colorado’s education funding is at a major crossroads.
The good news? Last year, state leaders made serious strides: paying off long-standing debts and revamping the decades-old formula that determines how schools get their money.
The not-so-good news? A budget shortfall is threatening to undo some of that progress — and once again, Colorado’s public schools are caught in the middle.
Join education reporter Erica Breunlin on April 29 (one week from today) for a free, virtual discussion with lawmakers, school finance experts and education leaders about what comes next, and whether Colorado can keep its promise to students, even when the budget says otherwise. (Please RSVP here!)
We’ve got more on the state budget in today’s Sunriser, plus an update on tree-eating pine beetles and other insightful Colorado news.
Olivia Prentzel
Reporter
THE NEWS
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Colorado legislature passes $43.9B budget that cuts transportation, social programs to fund rising health care costs
Colorado state Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat who is chair of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, attends a hearing Jan. 6. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)“Next year is going to be very bad. The cuts will be much more deep and much more painful.”
— Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village and chair of the Joint Budget Committee
⬇︎7%
The amount cut from the state’s general fund after closing a $1.2 billion shortfall
Lawmakers came into this year’s legislative session with a $1.2 billion sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. After months of wrangling, penny pinching and creative workarounds, lawmakers passed a budget that managed to avoid deep cuts to health care and education. Brian Eason walks us through how the budget was balanced — and why next year’s cuts are already looming.
READ MORE
Colorado immigration protection bill clears Senate vote. The Colorado Senate passed a bill that would put data protections in place for immigrants and limit places ICE can physically access.— Colorado NewslineCLIMATE
Colorado’s tree-eating pine beetles are surging back after a prolonged dry spell
A mountain along the Encampment River trail on the Wyoming/Colorado border shows damage caused to lodgepole pine trees killed by pine beetles in 2019. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)The number of headlines about the ravages of beetle-kill in the 2010s was topped only by the sheer number of gray, ghostly trees that appeared in the high country’s verdant forests. But after some wet seasons gave the trees the strength to resist the mountain pine beetle and spruce budworms, Michael Booth reports that the recent dry spell is helping the pests expand their infestation.
READ MORE
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Caught between state and federal budget cuts, Colorado’s local government programs are at risk
Maralyn Batz-Paz, a lead teacher for preschool Head Start, instructs her students to pose like ice statues before assembling them to recite morning affirmations during a class Feb. 12 at Clayton Early Learning in Denver. (Erica Breunlin, The Colorado Sun)“There’s more need than there was before, because people are becoming jobless, people are becoming homeless, and so the need is going up at the same time that we’re cutting services.”
— Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann
⬇︎$140 million
The drop in funding for programs administered by local governments from the state budget alone
Between lawmakers wrestling with the state’s budget crunch and the president launching a slash-and-burn campaign through federal programs, the city and county governments of Colorado are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Brian Eason digs into the programs that could feel the pain, from Head Start to utility bill help to bike lanes.
READ MORE
Denver judge to decide fate of accused Venezuelan gang members facing deportation to prison in El Salvador. ACLU Colorado wants a federal judge to order class-action status, which would protect hundreds of detainees from deportation.Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler
THE COLORADO REPORT
Perfect brownies baked at high altitude are possible thanks to Colorado’s home economics pioneer Inga Allison. Turns out, people in Colorado didn’t just spontaneously learn how to bake in the state’s complicated high-altitude environment. Early in the 20th century, a Colorado State home economics professor applied the scientific method to create techniques to keep your brownies from resembling hockey pucks. — The Conversation She told Trump the Smithsonian needs changing. He’s ordered her to do it. Broomfield native and Miss Colorado USA third runner-up 2010 Lindsey Halligan is the only person mentioned by name in a Trump executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” When asked to define the “improper ideology” she would be attempting to expunge from the Smithsonian, she told The Post, “We don’t need to overemphasize the negative to teach people that certain aspects of our nation’s history may have been bad.” — The Washington Post $600M Zyn factory goes vertical. By the end of the year, tobacco giant Philip Morris’ 800,000-square-foot campus near DIA will be churning out their signature nicotine pouches as one of the anchors of a rash of new industrial development near the airport.— BISNOW.com ? A bunch of starlings were hanging out on the back of a molting bison. Is it news? No. Is it a great picture and a brief respite from the rest of the world? Yes and yes. — r/Denver? = source has article meter or paywall
Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler
THE OPINION PAGE
COMMUNITY
Legislators have the power to ensure the integration of Coloradans with disabilities in our communities. House Bill 1017 would ensure critical programs remain accessible even if funding gets cut in the future.— Adie Bendickson, Masters of Social Work program at Colorado State UniversityThe Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy and submit columns, suggest writers or provide feedback at [email protected].
SunLit
REVIEW
From “Save Me, Stranger,” a cancer patient takes on an odd mission
In this excerpt from the short story “Eat My Moose” from Erika Krouse’s new collection, “Save Me, Stranger,” one particular stranger “saves” terminal patients by helping them die — an exercise that inexplicably reverses symptoms of his own terminal cancer. The themes of strangers and rescue find various forms throughout her pieces, and the story of the character Colum, an Army veteran and “professional euthanizer” who offers his service to clients in the Alaskan wilderness, provides a fascinating take.
READ AN EXCERPT
Interview with the author. Krouse explains how a friend’s suicide, and her subsequent guilt and remorse, shaped the title story as well as the collection’s theme.Section by Kevin Simpson | Writer
Remember, you can find all of The Sun’s upcoming events and RSVP, here. Have a great Tuesday.
— Olivia & the whole staff of The Sun
The Colorado Sun is part of The Trust Project. Read our policies.
Corrections & Clarifications
Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing [email protected].
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Lawmakers pass budget, complete with $1.2B in cuts )
Also on site :
- Education Ministry rehabilitates 70 schools since Assad regime’s fall
- In the wake of Myanmar quake
- The $6 billion Vatican Bank was beset by scandals, disastrous investments—and ties to the mafia. How Pope Francis tried to fix it