DENVER — Colorado lawmakers held a hearing Wednesday to explore the impact federal education cuts will have on Colorado.
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, cut the number of U.S. Department of Education employees by nearly half in March, from 4,133 employees to 2,183.
There is growing concern among lawmakers and furloughed employees that the federal government will not deliver on about $870 million in funding it gives to Colorado schools each year.
Colorado State Senator Chris Kolker spearheaded a hearing at the State Capitol Wednesday to explore how cuts could impact students. Two furloughed members of the U.S. Department of Education described their former roles and expressed concern that the department wasn’t prepared to deliver on millions of dollars in grants to schools.
“I worry the grants states have budgeted to receive sometime on or shortly after July 1 will not be distributed on time," said Joe Murphy, a former data and management scientist with the U.S. Department of Education. "I believe the grants might not be awarded at all."
Those grants account for, on average, 9% of school district budgets. The funding is for literacy programs, state testing, educator recruitment, and after school programs.
Cuts are already impacting the Office for Civil Rights, a sector of the Department of Education responsible for protecting students from discrimination.
Emily Harvey, the Co-legal Director for Disability Law Colorado says the Denver office went from overseeing 628 open investigations in January in five states to 2,200 investigations in 13 states today.
The cases look into bullying, harassment and disability-rights complaints against schools.
“In addition to the increased numbers of cases, the Denver office has gone from about 36 staff as of December to 24 so they have less staff and a lot more work. I think that averages out to between 115 and 120 investigations per person, which just seems unmanageable,” Harvey said.
Emily says Colorado should create its own civil rights laws for students to establish legal authority and resources to protect students.
“We need to care about all of our students and making sure that we protect all students is important,” Harvey said.
