Colorado Revised Statutes Title 22. Education § 22-55.5-101. Legislative declaration

(a) Research demonstrates that, when considering the elements of the education system within public schools, the classroom teacher has the most significant effect on a student's learning and academic growth;

(b) Each adult working within a school and interacting with students has the potential to positively influence the students within the school and increase learning and academic growth;

(c) For the 2019--20 school year, the department of education reported that Colorado had an average teacher salary of about fifty-seven thousand seven hundred dollars;

(d) In 2020--21, school districts and charter schools in Colorado paid a minimum teacher salary that ranged from a low of about twenty-five thousand dollars to a high of about fifty-three thousand dollars;

(e) For the 2020--21 school year, of the one hundred seventy-eight school districts in the state, all but thirty reported a minimum teacher salary of less than forty thousand dollars;

(f) Many of these school districts are rural school districts with low assessed property value and therefore limited ability to raise local property tax revenue; and

(g) The total program amount calculated for each school district pursuant to section 22-54-104, which represents the financial base of support for each school district, has been reduced for most school districts by the budget stabilization factor each budget year since the 2010--11 budget year, further restricting the ability of some school districts to increase their teacher salaries and the hourly wage for other employees.