Share the scarcity

Re: “Colorado’s massive budget shortfall likely to get worse,” May 12 news story

I am a sixth-year science teacher. I do not represent my district, my union, or my doctorate program. The thoughts shared are my own.

Showing care to students is what teachers, school nurses and counselors do. We oversimplify school as delivering state and federal teaching standards filtered through individual school culture or a district mission. This is not the student experience. Schools deliver care to students through physically and emotionally safe environments. School communities experience the consequences from budget shortfalls and surpluses. Teachers witness impacts through the behavior of our students and their ability to thrive. Simply put, fewer financial resources mean fewer children thriving.

For our most vulnerable children, schools are a place of food, stability and care. Coronavirus has taken this from them. Our minority students disproportionately experience poverty, hunger, home instability and lack of health care. They are now further exposed to financial instability, homelessness, and are losing precious learning opportunities.

Schools need financial support to provide essential stability and resources to children. Legislators will never know if the budget cut stole the reason for a disinterested child to come to school, but the school community will. I propose a cap: 8% budget cut for education.

Let’s be better about sharing financial scarcity than we are about sharing abundance.