{"id":2443284,"date":"2019-04-22T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T04:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/giving-thought-a-big-potential-victory-for-colorado-kids-with-full-day-kindergarten-funding\/"},"modified":"2019-04-23T07:27:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T13:27:44","slug":"giving-thought-a-big-potential-victory-for-colorado-kids-with-full-day-kindergarten-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/giving-thought-a-big-potential-victory-for-colorado-kids-with-full-day-kindergarten-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Thought: A big potential victory for Colorado kids with full-day kindergarten funding"},"content":{"rendered":"
Aspen Community Foundation, Lauder event, Aug. 13, 2018.<\/strong>
Steve Mundinger<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Colorado\u2019s public education system is on the verge of an important step forward, thanks to a bill making its way through the General Assembly.<\/p>\n

HB 19-1262 would fund full-day kindergarten in public schools across the state. The $175 million in funding for the move is included in the budget signed by Gov. Jared Polis last week. If the legislation \u2014 which changes state law to allow for full-day kindergarten \u2014 succeeds, then the funding would flow in time for the 2019-2020 academic year.<\/p>\n

Full-day kindergarten was one of Polis\u2019 top campaign promises, and we believe it\u2019s a major step forward for Colorado\u2019s children. Research consistently shows that full-day kindergarten increases the likelihood of academic growth and success for children as they move through their school years. Full-day kindergarten also helps teachers to identify students with developmental issues and intervene appropriately.<\/p>\n

Bill Jaeger, vice president of early childhood and policy initiatives at the Colorado Children\u2019s Campaign, said the outlook is promising for the legislation, which passed the House with strong bipartisan support and is moving through the Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this legislation, we\u2019re giving children access to a strong (educational) foundation,\u201d Jaeger said. \u201cSo the first beneficiary is the child. But what\u2019s really smart about this investment is that there are so many spillover benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, kindergarten is a patchwork across the state. The state funds kindergarten students for about a half-day, but schools that offer full-day kindergarten must either pay for the other half themselves or charge tuition up to $4,500 per school year. By stepping in to support full-day kindergarten, the state would save money for both families and school districts, but impacts will vary from district to district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a community in Colorado that isn\u2019t hurting in some way because of the state\u2019s failure to fund full-day kindergarten,\u201d Jaeger said.<\/p>\n

From a fiscal standpoint, the state is able to afford the investment thanks to higher-than-expected property tax revenue. These collections have created enough flexibility for the state to make the kindergarten commitment and add to its rainy-day reserves.<\/p>\n

Rob Stein, superintendent of the Roaring Fork School District, said the state effort will have a small effect on his district\u2019s budget, but will make a big difference for local families that currently pay kindergarten tuition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of our students are already in full-day kindergarten, so this won\u2019t change the numbers of classrooms or teachers,\u201d Stein said. \u201cBut we do have a lot of tuition-paying parents who are no longer going to have to pay it. Now they may be able to send their kids to preschool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein supports both the intent and the spillover benefits of HB 19-1262.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an educator, I believe it\u2019s important for kids to have full-day kindergarten,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should also provide full access to early childhood education (for kids 5 and younger). It\u2019s an important piece of the puzzle just to recognize that kindergarten should be fully funded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youth success is one of our highest priorities at Aspen Community Foundation. Our Cradle to Career Initiative is a multi-pronged, valley-wide effort to ensure that all of the region\u2019s young people, from birth to high school graduation, have the best possible chance to succeed in school and build happy, productive adult lives. The many components of Cradle to Career include efforts to improve access to early childhood education, to help children develop strong social and life skills, to strengthen academic performance and to smooth the transition from high school to college and career.<\/p>\n

A commitment by the state of Colorado to fund full-day kindergarten is a welcome sign that our elected officials share the same goal to support the future citizens, workers and leaders of our state. HB 19-1262 is scheduled to be considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee today.<\/p>\n

Tamara Tormohlen is executive director of Aspen Community Foundation.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado\u2019s public education system is on the verge of an important step forward, thanks to a bill making its way through the General Assembly. HB 19-1262 would fund full-day kindergarten in public schools across the state. The $175 million in funding for the move is included in the budget signed by Gov. Jared Polis last […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 04:05:04","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}