A Student’s View: School Funding & Teacher Salaries

My name is Aaike Dergance and I am a student at Northfield High School. I have recently researched the importance of school funding and teacher salary and in light of the recent teacher walkouts and protests nationwide, I have decided to write to you to stress that schools and teachers aren’t getting enough money to properly prepare our next generation.

Currently, schools in Colorado are estimated to be underfunded by nearly $800 million each year and our state is ranked 46th for teacher salary; teachers in Colorado only make about $49,720 each year, but teachers in the poorer parts of our state make so much less. Teachers are having to spend their own money on supplies for their classrooms, about $483 per teacher annually, and the students are still not getting all of the supplies and opportunities that they deserve.

I personally feel that without a good education it would seem nearly impossible to get anywhere in life. In our society today, it’s extremely hard to get a job that can sustain you without at least a high school diploma and right now our education system here in Colorado is failing to help our students to succeed so that they can continue to succeed throughout their lives. We need to improve our schools and make them into better learning environments for everyone. The only real way to do this is to get our schools more funding. With this they can improve all sorts of programs and pay more to get the best teachers. Our schools need money so that our students can make money in the future. Please support funding for schools to support the future of Colorado.

-Aaike Dergance