If you’re proud of Colorado’s world-class universities, thank a donor or a tapped-out parent. The Colorado legislature? Eh, only if you’ve got any gratitude to spare, because the General Assembly has other priorities.
Colorado enjoys one of the highest reputations for higher learning, and one of the most educated populations of any state (because of brainiacs who move here). And, yet, Colorado is among the worst states for public funding of higher education and for local kids going to college.
The Atlantic magazine called it the “Colorado Paradox.”
While K-12 teachers make a lot of noise about their schools’ needs and taxpayers’ poor job of meeting them, college presidents in Colorado make due, begging for donations and partnerships or hiking tuition.
Last year, Stephen Jordan, the then-retiring president of Metropolitan State University of Denver, predicted that contributions from the legislature might eventually fade to nothing.
“I don’t see anything on the horizon that would make that prediction not come true,” he told Colorado Public Radio.
In other words, get ready to pay up, parents of young ones with college in Colorado in mind. What it also very likely means is that as Colorado courts high-tech employers, those companies will bring many of their skilled and best-paid workers from out of state, which means more people, higher home prices and more traffic.
Read more at Colorado Politics: https://bit.ly/2N3AjvV
