{"id":1384936,"date":"2019-01-15T21:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T04:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/polis-proposes-funding-full-day-kindergarten\/"},"modified":"2019-01-15T21:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T04:08:00","slug":"polis-proposes-funding-full-day-kindergarten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/polis-proposes-funding-full-day-kindergarten\/","title":{"rendered":"Polis proposes funding full-day kindergarten"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

DENVER \u2014 Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wants to use better-than-expected tax revenue to implement free full-day kindergarten. <\/p>\n

Polis released a budget request Tuesday that includes $227 million so that all school districts can offer full-day kindergarten or stop charging families for it. He said many families pay up to $500 a month to enroll their children. <\/p>\n

Polis told reporters it’s the top priority of his new administration and wants to make it available by this fall. The Democrat also insisted the plan is not a mandate for either parents or school districts. <\/p>\n

Lawmakers must approve the request and enabling legislation. <\/p>\n

Nearly 50,000 Colorado children attend full-time kindergarten, and 19,000 of them go for free, according to the state education department. Families pay for roughly 25,000 children to attend. <\/p>\n

More than 13,000 children currently attend free part-time kindergarten. <\/p>\n

Polis said his plan would allow an extra 13,000 children to attend full-day kindergarten. It also would free up $100 million that districts currently spend on full-day kindergarten for other educational purposes. <\/p>\n

The governor requested nearly $26 million to implement the plan by this fall. <\/p>\n

Polis said his plan would free up $100 million that districts currently spend on full-day kindergarten for other educational purposes. <\/p>\n

The governor presents his proposal to the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Polis’ budget request doesn’t depart radically from that of his predecessor, John Hickenlooper, whose November request for the fiscal year that starts next July 1 stressed the need to prepare for an eventual recession. Hickenlooper’s $33.4 billion request was nearly 5 percent, or about $1.5 billion, above the current budget. <\/p>\n

Lawmakers will use the proposals to fashion a state budget for fiscal years 2019-2020. <\/p>\n

Polis’ request keeps $121 million to hold tuition flat at Colorado’s state-run universities and colleges next year. <\/p>\n

It also allocates seed money to create an Office of Saving Money on Healthcare, led by Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera; $1.3 million to create a model for importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada; and $1 million to create a state-run reinsurance program. <\/p>\n

That program would be designed to help cover health care costs for patients with the highest expenses, inducing private insurers to lower their premiums for others in Colorado’s market. <\/p>\n

Other proposals: <\/p>\n

\u2014$3 million to create a paid parental leave program for state workers. Democrats who control both chambers are working on an expanded program as well as paid family leave for private sector employees. <\/p>\n

\u2014Boosting to $1.8 million a request to add 16 employees to the state’s oil and gas regulatory body. <\/p>\n

\u2014Expand a program allowing immigrants who are in the country illegally to obtain or renew Colorado driver’s licenses.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DENVER \u2014 Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wants to use better-than-expected tax revenue to implement free full-day kindergarten. Polis released a budget request Tuesday that includes $227 million so that all school districts can offer full-day kindergarten or stop charging families for it. He said many families pay up to $500 a month to enroll their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1384936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-22 00:45:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KKCH - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1384936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1384936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1384936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1384936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}