Please sign this petition asking the Jeffco Public Schools Board of Education to vote to place a bond/mill levy override on the November ballot to help offset the planned reductions for 2013-2014...and most importantly, please commit to voting FOR the override on your November ballot.
Jeffco Public Schools have suffered severe funding losses due to cuts from the State of Colorado - to the tune of approximately $700 PER STUDENT. For an elementary school with a population of 400 students, that's a loss of $280,000...which amounts to approximately $60 Million across the District! And without the use of the District's reserves (which were accumulated through prior strategic planning), the cuts for the '10-'11 and '11-'12 school years would have been nearly $108,000,000! Current budget projections plan for a $41 Million spend down of the reserves in the upcoming '12-'13 school year, which will take reserves down to the 7% requirement (3% TABOR and 4% Board Policy) - meaning there will NOT BE RESERVES for the '13-'14 school year - then what happens?
Under the current budget scenario, the per pupil funding in Colorado for FY2012-13 ($6,344) will be lower than per pupil funding six years ago in FY2006-7. Amendment 23, passed in 2000 to ensure that the State's education spending kept pace with the inflation rate, has NOT been fully-implemented to-date (another issue entirely - please read more at http://www.greateducation.org/statistics-faqs/funding-faqs/amendment-23/). In fact, funding approved for the '11-'12 school year was $800 Million below what is required under the correct reading of Amendment 23.
You may hear or feel that we pay too much in taxes as it is. Here's food for thought: Colorado is 49th in the percent of our wealth we commit to K-12 education. What does this say about our priorities as compared with the rest of the nation? Did you know that CO spends $8,913 Per Pupil less than the state of Wyoming, and $2,510 less than the national average?! To see how CO ranks as compared to the rest of the Nation w/regard to education, please visit http://www.greateducation.org/statistics-faqs/statistics/. It's concerning, and we need to do something about it.
We cannot sit by and wait to see if the State can fix the education funding problem - we need to act NOW to ensure our children receive the quality education they are accustomed to and deserve!
Please visit http://www.greateducation.org/ and http://.www.jeffcopublicschools.org/board/index.html for information and to get involved.
Thank you for your support!
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Save Jeffco Public Schools!
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