How to rein in the increasing cost of education was the focus of a town-hall style meeting hosted by Democrat Andrew Romanoff, who is vying to replace incumbent Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, for Aurora’s 6th Congressional District seat in November.
Romanoff spoke with a small panel of K-12 and higher education administrators from the Aurora, Brighton, and Cherry Creek School districts at the Aurora Public Library May 21.
He asked Elena Sandoval-Lucero, who serves as Community College of Aurora’s Dean of Enrollment Management, whether CCA was being affected by higher education costs that he said are increasing at roughly twice the rate of inflation.
She said the biggest issue for CCA has been dwindling state support.
“I’m a Colorado native who received all of my education in Colorado. When I was a student, 65 percent of funding came from the state and 35 percent came from the student,” she said. “Now that is flipped the 35 percent comes from the state and the burden falls on the student to pay the other 65 percent.”
Other educators cited Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which limits school districts from increasing taxes without a vote of the people, and said there was little Romanoff could do in Washington to remedy that.
“We can always do no harm,” Romanoff said. He took a jab at Congressional incumbents, adding, “If they’re cutting Pell Grants and increasing student loans, that’s worse than doing nothing.”
Immigration reform was also a hot-button issue among the educators, who talked about the difficulty undocumented immigrants face affording college without being able to receive in-state tuition or money through federal financial aid programs.
“Congress decided this week to continue to block any action on immigration reform, even a proposal that would give kids who join the military the chance to earn citizenship,” he said, referring to Coffman’s flailing Military Enlistment Opportunity Act.
“The Senate Bill hasn’t come up for a vote in the House in a year since it passed. It’s really frustrating, everything we’re talking about, these priorities demand support from about 90 percent of the American people, and would be signed into law by the President, and can’t get the time of day in the House.”
— Rachel Sapin, staff writer