Our Accomplishments

2023

2023

  • Great Ed turns 20!
  • We undergo an extensive strategic planning process. Internally, we prioritize making our workplace more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Externally, we revise our mission and vision to center creating welcoming and adequately, equitably and sustainably funded schools.
  • We resume our annual Action Summit after a 3-year hiatus due to COVID-19 themed “Creating Welcoming Schools.”
  • Executive Director Lisa Weil is appointed to a legislative School Finance Task Force.
2023

2022

2022

  • Great Ed co-ran a successful, comprehensive campaign with the School Policy Coalition to get the Colorado Board of Education to adopt inclusive social studies standards.
  • We executed a signature-gathering campaign to help get Initiative 63 (Prioritize Education) on the ballot, gathering enough names to fill the Ball Arena...twice! But signature-gathering is halted due to a lack of funding. Sadly, polling shows that more than 60% of Coloradans would have supported the initiative.
2022

2021

2021

  • Great Ed launches Advocates Network, a monthly video call that brings together community advocates for public education to learn from and connect with each other.
  • We form our Youth Coalition to support youth-led and youth-serving organizations.
2021

2020

2020

  • Great Ed facilitates a signature-gathering campaign to help get Initiative 271 (Fair Tax Colorado) on the ballot. Due to the COVID-19 shut-down, signature gathering is discontinued — but initial polling shows that 70% of Coloradans would have supported the initiative.
  • Because we couldn’t host a Luncheon during COVID-19, Great Ed hosts an online event, featuring a virtual Escape Room that provided participants with interactive ways to learn about school funding obstacles and Great Ed’s efforts to overcome them.
2020

2019

2019

  • Great Ed gets a Director of Equity!
  • We launch our first Public Education Voter campaign and get out the vote for Proposition CC. Prop CC is defeated, but the Public Education Voter slate has continued to play an important role in elections since.
2019

2018

2018

  • Great Ed launches a Parent Advocacy Training Program, an 8-week course on how to be a public education advocate.
  • Great Ed and Great Schools Thriving Communities Coalition (GSTC) volunteers gather signatures for Amendment 73 (Establish Income Tax Brackets and Raise Taxes for Education), which becomes the first citizen initiative to qualify for the ballot under the new “Raise the Bar” rules. Though the measure is defeated, it receives a higher percentage of votes than any school funding tax measure to date!
2018

2017

2017

2017

2016

2016

2016

2015

2015

2015

2014

2014

  • Great Ed brings dozens to the capitol (including future Joint Budget Committee Chair Representative, Shannon Bird) to lobby their legislators for funding for public schools.
  • With 30,000 subscribers in 220 communities, Great Ed focuses on turning out public education supporters for a local mill and bond elections through telephone town halls, emails, postcards, and social media.
  • Low-propensity voters on Great Ed’s list vote at a rate 10% higher than the statewide level.
2014

2013

2013

  • Great Ed gets published again, calling on the legislature to make 2013 the “Year of the Student.”
  • 7,500 individuals and 170 organizations sign on to the Year of the Student pledge. Supporters deliver signatures and meet face-to-face with legislators, and send 26,000 emails to their legislators.
  • “Year of the Student” leads to 3,200 new preschool slots and, $20 million in funding for Special Education.
  • We endorse and gather signatures for Amendment 66...it’s defeated
    ...but Great Ed supporters vote at a rate 10% higher than the Colorado average!
2013

2012

2012

  • Great Ed and the Great Futures Coalition recruit endorsers and supporters for the “2013 “Year of the Student” campaign, in advance of the 2013 session.
  • The 2012 Great Futures Action Summit draws 140 activists from across Colorado.
2012

2011

2011

  • Great Ed and Great Futures Coalition volunteers deliver thousands of signatures and 435 pages of stories to legislators through the “Is It OK?” campaign, detailing the impact of poor funding on students, families, and teachers.
  • We host our first Action Summit: Great Futures Organizing Conference!
  • Ed board member Kathy Gebhardt sues the State of Colorado, arguing that the public school financing system violates the Colorado constitution’s Education Clause. Great Ed blogs the trial and submits amicus briefs in the litigation. A district court found after a five-week trial that Colorado’s system was not only unconstitutional but “unconscionable,” a decision that Great Ed supporters asked the Governor and State Board NOT to appeal. The Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the case.
  • 400 Great Ed volunteers collect 20,000 signatures for Proposition 103, Great Ed’s first foray in petitioning. Though it was defeated by a margin of 2:1, it created infrastructure for future efforts.
  • Great Ed hosts its First Annual Great Education Colorado Luncheon, honoring former State Treasurer Cary Kennedy.
2011

2010

2010

  • Great Ed creates an interactive map with information on local education budgets and how underfunding affects local schools.
  • Supporters of Great Ed and the Great Futures Coalition lobby and testify to get the DECIDE amendment referred to the ballot. Though it passes the House, it does not receive the ⅔ vote in both chambers to be placed on the ballot.
  • Great Ed’s dozens of volunteers handwrite and send thousands of postcards to voters, asking them to vote “no” on “The Bad Three” tax cuts: Amendments 60 and 61, and Proposition 101, all of which are soundly defeated.
2010

2009

2009

  • Great Ed forms the Great Futures Coalition made up of over 30 other organizations who share a goal of creating adequate and equitable funding for Colorado’s public schools
  • Great Ed gets on social media!
  • We publish “the graph”, showing how the Gallagher Amendment, TABOR, and the BS Factor has affected school funding
  • We formalize our mission and vision
2009

2008

2008

2008

2007

2007

2007

2006

2006

  • Great Ed hires our first employee!
  • We launch our first campaign: School Stories Project.
  • We hold our first rally at the Capitol: Bigger Than a Bake Sale
2006

2003-2004

2003-2004

Great Education Colorado’s predecessor, “Colorado Protectors of Public Schools (COPOPS),” is founded in a living room in Denver by a group of parents alarmed by the lack of interest shown by legislators for the critical issue of school funding.

2003-2004

Press + Media

  • Lawmakers spare K-12 education from budget cuts in 2020-21

    by Sterling Journal-Advocate
    February 5, 2021

    Read Article
  • Cortez schools plan vote on school closures amid ‘critical’ staff shortage

    Read More
  • Students speak out for more inclusive social studies standards ahead of the State Board of Education’s vote

    · Nov. 9, 2022, 5:39 pm

    Read More