Robert Fulton got off to a busy start to the year with three tasks.
First, he’s been preparing his presentation “How to Pay for College to become a Teacher in Colorado” for the Future Teacher Conference on Friday at the University of Northern Colorado.
Second, he’s conducting outreach programs around the state.
Third, he’s monitoring the financial fate of the Center for Rural Education on the UNC campus.
Colorado faces a budget shortfall of nearly $1 billion. Gov. Jared Polis’ proposed fixes include numerous funding cuts to the state budget, including eliminating $1.2 million for the Center.
“All of our funding comes from the state,” said Fulton, the director of the Center. “If the $1.2 million cut goes through, it means the Center is done. We would close down July 1.
“The end result will be rural schools will have even greater difficulty identifying, recruiting, hiring and retaining quality educators.”
Established in 2016 to alleviate the acute teacher shortage in rural Colorado, Fulton said the Center’s mission is to nurture “schools that are the heart and soul of rural communities.”
One method to achieve that goal is using the state funds it receives to provide incentives to bolster the number of rural educators.
The Center provides $4,000 stipends for student teachers “to be spent against tuition and student costs,” Fulton said. “Our goal is to reduce debt for a new teacher. We try to help navigate people so they don’t carry debt into their first job.”
Rural Inservice Educator stipends for students working toward advanced degrees or additional degrees are $6,000. The same amount is awarded in Special Service Provider stipends for school personnel such as counselors.
Fulton advocated for the Center’s value in a letter to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, a six-member group of lawmakers who make budget recommendations to the General Assembly. In his letter, Fulton wrote that “in 10 years the Center has awarded nearly $6.7 million in stipends to over 1,300 teacher candidates and practicing rural educators, sponsored recruitment events for aspiring rural educators, and increased the number of student teachers, alternative teacher licensure candidates, and advanced credential educators in rural Colorado school districts.”
Center records show at least 149 UNC students have received $764,000 in stipends since 2019.
UNC President Andy Feinstein said defunding the Center would cause widespread problems in the state.
“Eliminating the Center would undermine Colorado’s ability to prepare and retain educators for rural communities, weaken the state’s K-12 workforce pipeline and directly conflict with the state’s priorities for education, workforce development and equitable college access,” he said.
Colorado has 146 small rural or rural school districts, according to the Center. Weld County has nine schools in the two classifications. With just 53 students, Pawnee RE-12 in Grover is the smallest, while Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J’s 3,904 students make it the largest.
A Colorado school district is designated as small rural because of the size of the district, the distance from the nearest large urban area and having an enrollment of less than 1,000 students. A rural classification is given to districts with the same characteristics and an enrollment of 6,500 or fewer students.
Three state education organizations — Colorado Rural Schools Alliance, Colorado BOCES Association and Colorado Association of School Executives — wrote a letter to Polis urging him to reconsider his proposal to eliminate the Center’s funding because it “serves as the only statewide resource dedicated exclusively to supporting rural schools and districts.
“The elimination of this funding signals that Colorado is retreating from its commitment to educational opportunity for all students, regardless of their zip code. Rural students deserve the same quality education as their urban and suburban peers,” the letter states. “The relatively modest investment in the CCRE yields outsized returns by strengthening the capacity of districts serving over one-third of Colorado’s geographic area and thousands of students in our most underserved communities.”
While he waits for a reprieve from the governor or the Joint Budget Committee, Fulton continues to do the Center’s work. In January, he talked with teachers and future teachers at the NE BOCES Professional Development Day in Sterling. He also traveled to Montrose for the Next Education Workforce site visit.
“The majority of our outreach is done online,” he said. “We have monthly webinars and weekly virtual open houses for teachers. The on-site visits help with recruitment.”
A trip to Otero Junior College in La Junta to meet with 30 future teachers is important because, according to Fulton, “some students who grew up on the Front Range do teach in rural communities but something like 85% of teachers teach within a 40-mile radius of where they went to high school. About 65% are within 15 miles.”
Retention of teachers is as important as recruitment.
“We have rural communities where the retention rate is high and we have some where it is low,” he said. “It has to do with the quality of the facilities and the quality of leadership.”
Classroom numbers declined after pandemic restrictions ended as some families turned to homeschooling, but “happy students return to school if the school culture is good.”
Fulton said the Center will award $817,148 in stipends this year. He hopes the Center can continue to provide assistance to rural educators after this fiscal year ends.
“We’ve had an impact on the quality of rural teachers,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that I’m confident the funding will be there next year, but I’m hopeful. I think we have support from legislators on both sides of the aisle.”
— Ed Otte is a former editor of the Greeley Tribune and a former executive director of the Colorado Press Association.
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