Board of Education Legislative Agenda
The Durango Board of Education believes it is our responsibility to advocate for public education, our students, families, and community. In order to do so, we prioritize our positions, meet with our state and federal representatives, and educate our community so they too can be advocates.
2025 Priorities
- Prevent reinstatement of the Budget Stabilization Factor (BS)
- Fine tune the School Finance Formula to ensure adequate, equitable, and sustainable funding for schools
- Protecting districts against bad actors that unnecessarily cost the district time and money. This would include limiting extreme or gratuitous Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests and/or extraneous predatory lawsuits.
Finance
Colorado consistently ranks poorly for public education funding, which leads to low teacher and staff salaries compared to other states. It is one of only a couple states that does not provide any funding for facilities or transportation. We will continue to advocate for a School Finance Formula that adequately funds public education and will oppose unfunded mandates.
Student and Staff Safety and Success
Durango supports district accountability, but would like to see standards and assessments better aligned to reflect student learning. Currently, even the highest-performing districts are only reaching 60% proficiency. We also support more research into the ongoing and emerging needs as a result of COVID.
Accountability
We support increased accountability and transparency for all public school options, including traditional schools, non-traditional schools, charter, single and multi district online, etc., to certify a learning environment which results in positive student outcomes and success. We also want to ensure that all such schools equitably serve all students.
Local Governance
Durango supports reasonably protecting districts against bad actors that unnecessarily cost the district time and money. This would include limiting extreme or gratuitous Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests and/or extraneous predatory lawsuits.