Michael Bennet rolled out a new education policy this week as part of his campaign for Colorado governor.
“Education is one of the most important things to Colorado families,” Bennet said in an interview with The Durango Herald. “... Kids and parents are not confident that when their child graduates from high school, they graduate with the knowledge they need to earn a living wage.”
The U.S. senator said that is the message he is hearing from parents and students statewide, in rural and urban areas. Parents want to make sure that when their kids are graduating from high school they have the chance to make a living wage and head toward the middle class, Bennet said.
“That should be the focus of our education system, and I think we’ll find that it not only unifies us as a state but also gives us the chance to be able to answer many of the economic challenges that we’re facing as a society,” Bennet said.
One in five Coloradans work low-wage jobs, according to the Burning Glass Institute, and Colorado teachers face the highest pay gap in the country, according to the Economic Policy Institute. After COVID-19, 28% of Colorado kids are chronically absent from school, according to the Colorado Department of Education.
Bennet’s plan includes aspects for educators and students. For educators, Bennet said he will fight for competitive wages, invest in affordable housing and lower health care costs for schools. For students, Bennet plans to expand apprenticeships, work experience opportunities and college credit for high schoolers – as well as lead a statewide effort for all students to achieve reading proficiency by the end of third grade and math proficiency by fifth.
Launching the Rocky Mountain Center for Innovation is also part of the plan. The center would be a statewide hub led by parents, educators, businesses and the public sector to design new education models and support students for emerging technologies and work.
Bennet said not enough children are exposed to a diversity of job options in Colorado, such as agriculture and aerospace. By expanding apprenticeships and quality summer jobs, he wants to do a better job of linking what students are learning in the classroom to what they need to know to succeed at work.
Before serving in the Senate, Bennet was the superintendent of Denver Public Schools. He said he’s had the opportunity to work on these types of issues for most of his career. Parents, students, teachers and business owners were consulted in creating the plan, he said.
“We have worked very hard to bounce the plan off people all across the state, take feedback from people and improve it, and, like everything else, it is a work in progress. But I think that it will set Colorado on the path to being a leader in this country and preparing our kids for the ever-changing economy that they’re facing,” Bennet told the Herald.
If elected governor, Bennet would like to pursue a statewide ban on cellphones in classrooms. He said students lose opportunities by not being able to focus on academics during the school day, as well as facing mental health challenges from cellphone usage.
“It’s a real problem that our young people are spending as much as three months a year on their phones, and it seems to me the last place they need to do that is in our schools and in our classrooms,” Bennet said.
Colorado has experienced its share of school shootings, including in September at Evergreen High School. Part of Bennet’s plan is to address school safety.
Bennet and his wife have raised three daughters in Colorado, with their oldest being born in 1999, the year of the Columbine High School shooting.
“Like all the kids in Colorado, over the last generation they’ve grown up with the shadow of gun violence,” Bennet said. “I think that we have to do everything we can do to make sure that kids and teachers and families feel safe when they send their kids to school, and I think that’s not going to be a one-size-fits-all policy.”
Ensuring education leads to good-paying jobs is Bennet’s third big policy proposal rollout in his gubernatorial bid, following plans for affordable housing and child care.
Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democratic challenger for governor, also wants to raise teacher wages and address student mental health.
Bennet said his plan sets a bold standard of what parents and children want to be able to say about the education system: that high school graduates can earn a living wage.
“I not only think that is achievable, I think it’s critical that we achieve it because we are living in a moment where everything is so unaffordable,” Bennet said. “Families all across the state, including in Southwest Colorado, in Durango, are very worried that their kids may never be able to afford housing in the community.”
With new technologies like artificial intelligence changing the way students learn, Bennet said Colorado can’t be built around those changes, but with them.
“We have to make sure we’re prepared for that new world, and I see no reason why Colorado can’t lead all 50 states in preparing the next generation for the opportunities that they’ll be able to build for their kids and their grandkids in the state of Colorado,” he said.
Abigail Hatting is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a senior at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at ahatting@durangoherald.com.
