Nearly 100 educators from across Colorado gathered at the State Capitol for Rural Lobby Day, seeking to highlight the challenges faced by rural schools. The group met with legislators to discuss chronic underfunding, hiring shortages, and increasing cost-of-living pressures that are making it difficult to retain teachers and provide consistent education.
Rebecca Costanzo, a high school social studies teacher and member of the Brush Education Association, described how persistent teacher shortages are impacting students’ literacy and essential skills. “We have been down an English teacher in our high school for about three years. When I graduated from college in 2011, there were hundreds of English teachers, and now we can’t even get one to come out to Northeast Colorado,” Costanzo said. “So it’s really impacting our students and their instruction in reading and writing and other important skills that they need in the 21st century.”
Kasey Anderson, a high school science teacher with the Sterling Education Association, linked adequate funding directly to student opportunities. “Funding impacts our ability to provide materials and equipment that is relevant to the changing times, and be able to provide students with real world opportunities that will help develop their skill sets to make them more marketable when they leave our schools,” she stated.
Cheryl Prins, a Spanish teacher with Eagle County Education Association, noted that housing shortages have led teaching positions for Native Spanish speakers to remain unfilled. This resulted in programs serving mostly Latino students being shut down. “There were several different people who committed to the position, but then backed out over the summer because they couldn’t find housing, so the position went unfilled. We couldn’t run our program because we didn’t have a teacher,” Prins said.
Nicole Glassel, a first grade teacher from Fort Morgan Education Association, expressed concern about reliance on temporary staff such as J1 visa holders or long-term substitutes due to ongoing shortages. She explained that her middle school faces 15 openings next year as current visa holders must leave.
Laura Daly of Eagle County Education Association summarized her motivation for attending: “I came because there are some changes that need to be made, and unless legislators hear from us and from the people that are in the schools, they don’t know what’s going on.” She added: “I came to lobby day because my students are worth fighting for. I came so that I could show them that their voice matters and that I didn’t just tell them that they can do it, but I showed it by my own actions.”
Educators emphasized their call for lawmakers to address what they describe as Colorado’s broken school funding system. They asked state leaders not only for increased investment but also recognition of rural schools’ importance within their communities.
Rural Lobby Day was intended as a demonstration of continued advocacy by educators who say these issues cannot be ignored if Colorado’s rural schools are expected to thrive.
