Colorado State Board of Education 2017 Legislative Priorities

The Colorado State Board of Education is committed to working with the Governor, the Colorado Legislature, school districts and stakeholders to re-envision learning for the future. By working together to keep all Colorado students as the focus, we believe in our ability to establish a vision and a plan that will keep education in Colorado on a forward path.

Student Success

We support policy that…

• Encompasses the continuity of sequenced, coherent, and high quality education from pre-K through career or higher education.
• Ensures all students have access to meeting the Colorado Academic Standards.
• Acknowledges each local district’s unique challenges in closing achievement gaps, and advancing all students’ academic achievement.
• Enhances opportunities for children to participate in programs which increase their readiness to learn in kindergarten.

Choice and Engagement

We support policy that…

• Ensures students have high quality educational choices to best meet their individual learning needs and aspirations.
• Ensures parents have access to information about education programs and the opportunities to participate in related discussions and decisions on behalf of their child.
• Supports districts in their efforts to build broad parent engagement and community partnerships.
• Ensures local options to further support their schools are preserved.   

Flexibility

We support policy that…

• Provides flexibility to schools, districts, and the Colorado Department of Education to deliver high quality education services.
• Provides flexibility in the way school districts meet reporting and implementation requirements in order to minimize the burden on district staff.
• Keeps Colorado’s best interests in mind while anticipating and responding to new Federal law and funding.

Data Collection and Access

We support policy that…

• Ensures the maximum protection possible for individual student data in terms of collection, storage and transmission.

School Finance

We support policy that…

• Leads to the development of an equitable, comprehensive, and predictable Colorado school finance system that provides permanent solutions to the state’s funding challenges, optimizes opportunity, and ensures state flexibility.
• Clearly communicates with, and engages the public around school finance.
• Takes into account state and local contribution capacity to ensure all students have equitable educational opportunities.
• Enhances and improves the Permanent Fund, and protects it from further depletion.

State Board Authority

The Colorado State Board of Education is responsible for the general supervision of public schools through collaboration with the legislative and executive branches.  In furtherance of its constitutional responsibility, the State Board of Education supports policy that recognizes its rulemaking authority, rather than policy enacted through prescriptive statute.