60, 61, and 101 go down in flames
Congratulations to you all and thank you so much for your hard work in this election. As you probably know by now the “Ugly Three” were defeated soundly. Also congratulations to Hayden, South Routt, Aspen, and Summit County members for helping to pass their Mill Levy overrides. Unfortunately we lost in West Grand and East Grand, although East Grand’s bond issue would have only gone into effect if 61 had passed.
As I’m sure you may know our membership has fallen quite significantly from last year to this year. It’s especially disheartening give the fact that last year we hit an all time high of 1,206 members. This may be a good opportunity for you to inform you members, and your potential members of how hard our local associations and CEA worked on the ballot issues and your local mill levies, win or lose. It’s important for them to also know that each of your locals received money from the FUND to help in the efforts.
I understand there are viable reasons why our membership has fallen. Most of our school employees took a pay freeze, some of them for the second straight year. Some of us saw our colleges lose their jobs, including many of our members. The negative press about CEA’s opposition to SB 191 and the failure of Colorado to receive Race to the Top money, coupled with the hype about the movie “Waiting for Superman” have given regular public education and public school unions a black eye.
But we must keep the faith. Public education is vital to economic recovery. Our voice in the political process and our relevance as an association are vital to having a voice in what happens in our local school districts. Maybe someday the legislators and voters in Colorado will figure out that it’s not ok to be at the very bottom in per pupil funding compared to other states.
Dennis Carlson
Ski Country UniServ
