Debbie Benefield - Colorado's Crumbling Schools

Colorado's Crumbling Schools

$1 Billion to Fix Colorado’s Crumbling Schools with No New Taxes

By State Representatives Dianne Primavera and Debbie Benefield

Colorado has a big problem: our schools are literally crumbling. Eighty-eight percent of the state's
school districts report at least one school not meeting health or safety standards. Some startling examples paint a vivid picture of the problem:

In Yuma County, part of a roof collapsed in the elementary school.

In Conejos County, students have had to dodge tiles falling from a sagging roof.

And in eastern El Paso County, part of a student’s desk, with the student in it, fell through the rotted floor of a classroom trailer.

Colorado's schools – some more than 100 years old – have failing roof systems, broken boilers, asbestos contamination, structural problems, inadequate fire safety systems, inadequate water treatment systems, faulty electric and pest infestation. Some districts have nearly half of their students in trailers. However, with a plan announced last Sunday, Colorado’s schools are about to get the resources they need to build safe buildings without distractions from learning.

The Building Excellent Schools Today – or B.E.S.T. – will help make sure every child in Colorado attends a school that is safe, healthy and educationally enriching -- without raising taxes or impacting the state general fund. B.E.S.T. may be the most significant investment in Colorado school construction since statehood. The plan will send as much as $1 billion – with no new taxes – towards school repair, and when needed, new construction. That's enough to build as many as 100 new schools and to repair hundreds of others. I am proud to tell our constituents in Westminster that we will be among the first to co-sponsor the B.E.S.T. legislation when it comes to the General Assembly.

The program was designed by leading Democrats, including Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff, Senate President Elect Peter Groff and Treasurer Cary Kennedy. B.E.S.T. works by leveraging income from the School Trust Lands, property the federal government granted to Colorado for the benefit of its schoolchildren upon statehood, to build new schools and help fix Colorado's most dilapidated public education facilities.

B.E.S.T will ensure students spend less time concentrating on staying warm during the winter and more time pondering the periodic tables by covering the varied capital and infrastructure needs of Colorado’s public schools.

The first step for B.E.S.T. will be to conduct a statewide assessment of the health and safety needs of our schools. Once the neediest schools are identified, funds will be leveraged to repair existing schools and to build brand new schools across the state. This is wonderful news for every parent, student, teacher and taxpayer in Colorado.

For too long our schools have foundered. Now they are falling down. This is unacceptable. To compete in the globalized 21st century economy requires schools that foster safe, clean and dynamic learning environments. But it's impossible to prepare our kids for the next century when our schools are stuck in the last one. Repairing and rebuilding our crumbling schools will allow teachers and students to do what they do best: teach and learn.

For more information on how B.E.S.T will benefit Colorado, please contact either of us at the following: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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