This post was written by Douglas Bissonette, superintendent of Elizabeth School District C-1.

I am writing to ask for your help to minimize cuts to public education.

In recent years, at the district level, we have become good at cutting spending while also communicating the wisdom of those cuts to gain community support for our actions.  But we’ve past the breaking point. Our children have already been denied the education they deserve, and now we are depriving them the education they need. As a state, at least, we have completely lost sight of what matters. It’s a slow death by a thousand cuts.

I’m in my eighth year as a school superintendent, having spent six years in Ridgway and two in Elizabeth. The proposed cuts ($332 million) are the equivalent of closing 109 of the state’s smallest school districts serving 39,040 students. Picture the impact of each of those 109 school districts shutting their doors. The students in those schools would have to attend neighboring districts, and those neighboring districts would not receive additional funding to educate those additional students.

Imagine that, if you can. A list of the districts is provided below.

Elizabeth School District is the eastern neighbor of Douglas County Schools and a southern neighbor of Cherry Creek Schools. The proposed cuts are also equivalent to closing Cherry Creek, with Total Program Funding of $333 million. Cherry Creek’s students would have to go to school somewhere else. Imagine CCSD’s 40,396 students flooding into Elizabeth, Douglas, Littleton, Aurora, Denver, and Jefferson districts next year. Again, without a dime going to the neighboring districts.  How would that affect the quality of education kids receive in those districts?

Imagine the outcry if the state did either! Outright revolt, I’m sure. But with the cuts so spread out, people are crying rather than fighting.

If neither of these ways adequately convey the crime being committed against our children, the cuts equal 48,770 students that would not be funded. Thought about THIS way, it is a crime. Since we spread it out, people accept it.  Why?  We are hiding the real cost with everyone suffering equally.

The list of the 109 districts is below, starting with the smallest. Take a look…

Please use every ounce of energy, intelligence and resolve to find a way to adequately fund K-12 education.

I used figures from the worksheet on the CDE website (http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdefinance/SchoolFinanceFundingFY2011-12.htm) and used Adjusted Total Program Funding to determine the schools that would need to close.  The numbers were confirmed by Vody Hermann prior to her retirement from CDE, and provided to Bruce Caughey at CASE in response to a message I sent him.

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