Dear Editor:
I was a Denver Public school teacher from 1979—2013. I loved my job. At the same time, I saw tremendous waste in time and money. Looking back on the last 10 years, I dug into the latest data. (NCES, U.S. Census Bureau, Colorado Department of Education, and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).
There is a fairly striking story here: In the 2003-04 school year spending was $7,478/student. In the 2022-23 year we went up to $14,884/student. Yes, that is almost a 99% nominal increase. Colorado ranks 28th among the 50 states, 27 spend more/pupil, and 22 states spend less.
The long-term pattern is striking:
Mathematics
483 → 463
A decline of about 20 points since 2003.
Reading
495 → 490
Essentially flat over the long run, although 2025 produced a significant decline from 2022.
Science
489-ish → 502
Roughly stable to somewhat higher.
Colorado’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)’s score, often called the nation’s report card, was 278, six points higher than the other states average. Yet this score of 278 was below the 2003 score of 283—No progress made. So despite considerably higher spending, Colorado has not produced a corresponding long-term improvement in eighth-grade math performance.
The really important point is Colorado spends substantially more per student today than 20 years ago, yet its eighth-grade NAEP math score is slightly lower than it was in 2003.
Why are we spending so much more but not getting dramatically better academic results? That’s the next question worth investigating. Does the money really trickle down to the students? Increased spending does not translate to increased learning. That’s why I’m voting No on proposition NN.
Gregg Heid
>