Supports school choice: $10,000 to follow student anywhere
Q: Increase funding for K-12 education?
Jared Polis (D): Yes. Advocates for increased across-the-board funding and preschool for all. Has also supported related levies and bonds and will continue to do so.
Walker Stapleton (R): Yes.
But "it is critical to ensure that these dollars actually make it into the classroom."
Q: Support recent teachers' strikes?
Polis: Yes. Stop underpaying teachers, "instead of criminalizing [their] right to.demand fair compensation."
Stapleton: Unknown.
Q: Education: Support providing vouchers or tax breaks to parents to send their children to private schools with public money?
Polis: "I've voted against vouchers every time they've come up in Congress.
I don't support diverting funds from public schools to private schools. Period."
Stapleton: Yes. Advocates "school choice" and believes "each student that gets . $10,000 in funding should take that money .& .do whatever they want."
More charters, school choice, & education savings accounts
Colorado Politics managed an early look at Walker Stapleton's plan to put "more money in our classrooms and more money in parents' pockets where it belongs." He'll do that by cutting administration costs, creating annual sales tax holidays on
back-to-school shopping and providing tax-free education savings accounts for parents.
As Stapleton has said throughout his candidacy, he remains a proponent of school choice, namely charter schools. "It's up to the next governor to make sure our
classrooms are adequately funded and parents have more choices when it comes to their child's education," Stapleton said in a statement. "I'm confident my proposals will help hardworking Colorado families and, most importantly, help our students
succeed."
His savings plan proposal would allow parents to save for education expenses, "including early childhood education, music lessons, tutoring services, and career and technical educational programs," according to the platform plank.
Transfer funds from bloated administration to teachers
Stapleton's campaign pointed to Colorado Department of Education data from 2011 to 2017 showing enrollment grew by 6.3 percent and faculty grew by 8.1 percent, but administration grew by a whopping 34.6 percent.
Stapleton plans to take money spent on bloated administration and redirect those dollars to teachers' pay.
"In order to retain the best teachers in the country, we should be using our education dollars to pay our teachers and get more money into classrooms to help students succeed," said Stapleton. "This can be done with existing funds if we increase
transparency in the budgeting process and direct dollars to the teachers and the classrooms where they belong."
Stapleton called it "commonsense policy" to cut a tax break to parents' spending on education.
Charter schools give low-cost, high quality education choice
Education is an investment not only in our children, but in the future. Unfortunately, we have far too many students who have become trapped in failing schools. Only 1 in 4 students graduate fully prepared for college or the workforce. I will fight for
the right to have access to high-quality education. Expanding school choice is a critical component of this effort. Charter schools provide a low-cost, high-quality education that serves a more diverse student body than traditional public schools.
Source: 2018 gubernatorial campaign website StapletonForColorado.com
, Jun 23, 2018