EDITORIAL: Now we know the cost of successful schools. Let’s find the money.

There were no surprises in two studies released last week focusing on how much it would really take to get Colorado kids successfully to graduation day. 

The Colorado Legislature commissioned two consultant groups to tell state lawmakers and education officials the price for getting the bulk of Colorado kids where they need to be in school.

It’s a lot.

The two intensive studies agreed that Colorado needs to spend between $3.5 billion to $4.1 billion more each year above the $10 billion a year it already spends on public education.

After years of reporting on the challenges that school districts like Aurora Public Schools, Cherry Creek, Denver Public Schools, Adams School District 14 and Jeffco schools face in trying to push kids to succeed in school, every day, every year and through graduation, the lack of resources is startlingly clear.

For decades, research and data have shown that children who come from more stable, more wealthy families who have the ability to spend more time focusing on their children’s education and well-being do far better in school than other students.

In a world where the cost of living makes living almost a luxury and parents must work more and still have less for their families, the only reliable safety net in the state are public schools.

It was decades ago that scientists determined that the earlier a child is stimulated by educational themes and ideas, even in infancy, the more likely they are to do well in school and succeed in their careers.

Years ago, federal Head Start programs showed that preschool programs for everyone helped level the playing field later in life by literally giving young children a head start on the road to being successful in life.

But decades of research has also solidly proven that kids who don’t regularly go to school, or who move from school to school, or don’t have families pushing them to learn, or don’t have enough to eat, or a home they feel safe in, or kids who speak a language other an English at home, or don’t have to access to books, or struggle with their families in poverty, these kids more easily fall behind. The younger they fall behind, the more likely it is they won’t graduate.

That was 30 years ago, before the onset of extreme social media, the pandemic and a world that has added new and sometimes crushing stresses on children.

And despite all the talk of public “safety nets” to help children whose families are unable or unwilling to help themselves, the only real safety net in Colorado are public schools.

So many lawmakers and others wrongly insist that the state “buckle down” and focus on the “Three R’s” in an unrealistic push for “back to basics.” This wrongheaded assessment overlooks that we have created a society where schools, and only schools, can and must provide a full range of health and social services to children, because no one else can or will. Schools have become not just food centers for hungry children, but food banks for entire families as well.

Schools have become centers of law enforcement, drug-abuse resistance education, childcare, healthcare and mental-health care.

Schools have become surrogate parenting programs, ensuring children make it to school or have the technical resources they need to learn to live and work in a technical world.

Schools are career centers where we expect pricey college-like facilities to give children a leg up in the work world by sending them from high school armed with all kinds of job training.

We expect public schools to prepare children for college whether they enter public schools at 16 unable to speak English or come to school from homes where they’re allowed to play video games until they fall asleep at night and scroll through TikTok until their minds are numb.

Schools should be responsible for all those things. Taking care of children’s health and mental health needs, ensuring they have the resources they need to learn and the encouragement to pursue curiosity and learning makes for healthier, happier adults. And it makes for healthier adults who need far less government-paid services for their entire lives.

The science has long been clear: Investing in children through education saves taxpayer dollars and makes for better, safer communities. 

But the cost of this safety net is higher than what Colorado carves out for it, and these two studies have now shown that.

Now, it’s up to state lawmakers, Gov. Jared Polis and the residents of Colorado.

We can accept the facts and the science, and provide schools with what they must have, so they can deliver what all of us need from public schools.

Or we can stay on a path that costs billions every year and continues to fail at what we’ve set out to do.