A new vision for Colorado schools: State of Education

While national politics are becoming increasingly partisan, in Colorado we have a tradition of working together to solve our toughest challenges. There is no task more challenging or important than securing the future of our education system. From a person’s earliest days to their career changes in adulthood, our education system should provide the hope and tools for us to achieve our aspirations. But all systems need to evolve to meet the challenges of the future. And without a shared statewide vision for our education system, it’s difficult to navigate the tough policy and budget choices that are needed to help it evolve.

That’s why we have joined a group of bipartisan elected officials, educators, and policy makers to develop a vision and blueprint to improve education outcomes for Colorado’s students. Commissioner of Education Katy Anthes is a co-chair of this effort, which we call the State of Education. Public outreach is an essential and substantial part of our work– we are connecting with thousands of people all across the state — and we ask you to help us by visiting stateofeducation.org to add your voice through our survey, and learn more about the work.

The need for this effort is more pressing than ever. Colorado’s economy is frequently ranked the best in the nation, but our current workforce cannot keep up with the demands of the labor market. There are open jobs in Colorado today that are difficult to fill because our state lacks people with the right level of training and education — diverse jobs like nurses, civil engineers, accountants, mental health counselors, teachers and pilots. And we know that across the state, jobs with the most openings, highest growth rates and that pay a living wage overwhelmingly require education or training beyond high school for entry into the field.

We need to prepare every student to succeed in life and in the jobs of the future. To get this done will take all of us, including our new elected officials. In addition to electing a new governor this year, Coloradans will pick more than a dozen new legislators and two new state school board members, all of whom play a critical role in shaping our education system.

We want to give each of them a blueprint for what Coloradans want in their education system. Informed by Republicans, Democrats and Independents, the blueprint will be inclusive. Informed by parents, students, teachers, taxpayers, administrators, advocates, policy makers, and business leaders, the blueprint will be stakeholder driven and represent our education system from early childhood, through K-12 and higher education, and into the workforce. The blueprint will be the starting point of a multi-year process to make Colorado’s education system the envy of the nation and the world.

We may not always agree on the way we get to the finish line, but the goal is clear: Colorado needs a new vision for our education system that provides every student with hope for their future and the tools to get there.

We hope you will join us in shaping the

State of Education.